University  of  California  •  Berkeley 


THE 

ROMAN  AND  ITALIC 
PRINTING  TYPES 

IN  THE  PRINTING  HOUSE  OF 

THEODORE  L.  DE  YINNE  &  CO 

12  LAFAYETTE  PLACE 


NEW-YORK 
THE  DEVINNE  PRESS 

1891 


&ince  foonour  from  tfoe  fronourer  procee&S, 
$ott  ttieH  tio  rfcej?  tJes^rtie,  t&at  mcmori3e 
2Cnb  tetibc  in  boofes  for  aH  posterities 
(Cfre  names  of  \uortbieS  anb  t&eir  birtuouS  OeetJS. 

JOHN  FLORIO.    1545-1625. 


OFFICE  OF  THE  DE  VINNE  PRESS, 

12  Lafayette  Place, 
NEW- YORK,  September,  1891. 


WE  take  pleasure  in  presenting  to  our  customers  a 
complete  Specimen  Book  of  various  sizes  and  faces 
of  types  suitable  for  books,  magazines,  pamphlets,  catalogues, 
and  circulars.  An  effort  has  been  made  to  contrast  the  old 
style  and  modern  cuts  of  letter  on  opposing  pages.  To 
facilitate  a  comparison  of  effects  the  sizes  most  frequently 
used  are  shown  in  three  forms — solid,  leaded,  and  double 
leaded.  Initials  have  been  inserted  to  show  how  an  other- 
wise unattractive  page  may  be  brightened. 

Of  most  of  the  sizes  of  types  here  displayed  we  have 
large  fonts.  Many  are  new,  and  all  are  in  good  condition, 
well  fitted  for  the  printing  of  fine  book,  pamphlet,  and  job 
work. 

Electrotyping  and  cloth  binding  are  done  in  departments 
of  this  establishment. 

Head-bands  and  tail-pieces,  and  typographical  book 
decorations  from  the  leading  European  founders,  can  be 
supplied  in  great  variety. 

THEO.  L.  DE  VINNE  &  Co. 


GENERAL  INFORMATION. 


NUMBER  OF  WORDS  IN  A  SQUARE  INCH. 

IN  calculating  the  number  of  pages  a  manu- 
script will  occupy,  these  figures  may  be  used : 

Words  to 
Square  Inch. 

Double  small-pica,  solid   ...  4 

Great-primer,  solid          ....  7 

English,  solid 1 1 

Pica,  solid 14 

Pica,  leaded n 

Small-pica,  solid 17 

Small-pica,  leaded        ....  \^ 

Long-primer,  solid         .      .      .      .  21 

Long-primer,  leaded         ...  16 

Bourgeois,  solid 28 

Bourgeois,  leaded         ...  21 

Brevier,  solid       .      .            ...  32 

Brevier,  leaded       .                  .  23 

Minion,  solid 38 

Minion,  leaded 27 

Nonpareil,  solid         .....  47 

Nonpareil,  leaded         ....  34 

Pearl,  solid 69 

Pearl,  leaded 50 

Thus,  suppose  the  size  of  book  called  me- 
dium octavo  were  selected  for  a  manuscript 
of  80,000  words.  The  type  page  should 
measure  about  3^4"  x  6^  inches,  or  25^  square 
inches.  If  small-pica  type,  leaded,  were 
desired,  the  number  of  words  in  one  page 
would  average  353,  and  the  number  of  pages 
in  the  book,  exclusive  of  titles  and  other 
front  matter,  would  be  about  227.  By  fol- 
lowing the  same  rules,  these  80,000  words 
would  make  in  long-primer  198  pages,  in 
brevier  138  pages,  in  nonpareil  93  pages. 
These  calculations  are  for  close  or  compact 
composition.  There  must  be  added  a  fair  al- 
lowance for  chapter  heads,  blank  pages,  etc. 


"  Leaded,"  as  here  used,  means  a  widening 
of  lines  with  six-to-pica  leads. 


MAKE-UP  OF  A  BOOK. 

The  customary  order  in  the  make-up  of  a 
book  is  :  half-title  and  blank  page,  full  title 
and  blank  page  or  copyright  notice,  dedica- 
tion and  blank  page,  preface,  list  of  contents, 
list  of  illustrations,  text,  appendix,  glossary, 
index.  When  the  certificate  of  a  limited  edi- 
tion is  used  it  should  precede  the  half-title. 
A  sheet  of  errata  may  advantageously  follow 
the  list  of  illustrations,  though  it  often  forms 
the  last  leaf  of  the  book.  An  advertisement 
facing  the  title-page  is  not  in  good  taste. 

To  prevent  a  frequent  occasion  for  mis- 
understanding, do  not  use  leaf  and  page  as 
synonymous.  A  direction  to  make  the  words 
in  a  piece  of  copy  occupy  eight  leaves  is  an 
authorization  to  put  it  on  sixteen  pages.  The 
word  leaf  can  be  properly  given  only  to  paper 
—  never  to  print.  A  leaf  has  two  sides:  if 
printed  on  one  side  only  it  has  but  one  page 
of  print;  if  printed  on  both  sides  it  has  two 
pages  of  print.  The  word  page  can  be  cor- 
rectly given  only  to  the  print  on  one  side  of 
a  leaf. 

RELATIVE  SIZES  OF  TYPES. 

BRUCE'S   STANDARD. 

A  page  that  contains  1000  ems  pica  is 
equivalent  to  a  page  containing: 

Small-pica        ....          1260  ems.  * 
Long-primer      ....       1587     " 
Bourgeois        ....         2000     " 

Brevier          2520    " 

Minion 3175     " 

Nonpareil 4000     " 


RELATIVE  VALUES  OF  BINDINGS. 

Paper,  boards,  cloth,  skiver,  roan,  calfskin, 
russia,  turkey  morocco,  and  levant  morocco 
increase  in  price  in  the  order  here  given. 
Parchment,  vellum,  and  hogskin  are  excep- 
tional bindings. 

CUSTOMARY  SIZES  OF  BOOKS. 


Sizes  of  the  Untrimmed 
Leaf,  in  Inches. 

.       .         12  X  19 
.       .          9l/2  X  12 

8XxnK 

.      .      .       7  X  ii 
.      .     6^  x  10 


5/8  X  72A 
41/2X6% 

4%  X7 
4X6^ 

3*/2  X  Sl/2 


Folio 

Quarto 

Imperial  8°      .... 
Super  royal  8°   ... 
Royal  8°    .... 
Medium8°  .... 

Demy  8° 

Medium  12°       ... 
Medium  16°    . 
Cap  8°     .      .      . 
Medium  18°.        .      . 
Super  royal  32°       .      . 

Of  these  the  medium  12°  and  medium  16° 
may  be  considered  the  most  popular  sizes. 
When  the  book  is  trimmed,  the  measure- 
ments given  above  will  be  slightly  reduced. 
Books  can  be  made  of  intermediate  sizes 
and  of  different  proportions ;  but  the  sizes 
here  specified  are  regular  and  will  be  found 
the  most  economical.  Intermediate  and 
irregular  shapes  compel  a  waste  of  paper, 
or  the  extra  delay  and  extra  cost  of  paper 
made  to  order. 

The  margins  of  a  page  often  consume 
three  fifths  of  the  space  upon  it,  leaving  a 
comparatively  small  portion  to  be  occupied 
by  the  type. 

ABOUT  MANUSCRIPTS. 

Untidy  and  illegible  covy  is  always  to 
the  author's  disadvantage  —  in  unavoidable 
delays,  in  extra  charges  for  alterations,  and 
in  the  increased  probability  of  vexatious 
misprints  which  the  utmost  vigilance  may 
not  discover.  Typewritten  copy,  if  on  paper 
not  too  thin,  is  the  most  satisfactory;  but 
when  it  is  impracticable  to  furnish  this,  a 


final  draft  should  be  made  for  the  printer 
in  which  all  additions,  interlineations,  and 
corrections  are  inserted  in  proper  order. 
Plain  writing  is  always  preferred:  flourished 
letters  confuse  and  retard  the  compositor. 

Authors  can  materially  assist  the  printer 
by  furnishing  with  manuscript  a  rough  draft 
of  the  card  or  circular  or  pamphlet  they  have 
in  view,  showing  the  dimensions  of  the  print 
and  prominence  to  be  given  each  portion  of 
the  matter. 

Punctuation  may  safely  be  left  to  the 
proof-readers  of  a  printing  office.  It  is  part 
of  their  profession ;  they  make  a  study  of 
the  subject,  and  are  usually  better  qualified 
for  this  work  than  the  inexpert. 


TITLE-PAGE  AND  PREFACE. 

Copy  for  title-page  and  preface  is  com- 
monly neglected  by  authors  until  the  rest  of 
the  book  has  been  printed,  and  it  not  infre- 
quently happens  that  the  title-page  is  printed 
on  a  separate  leaf  when  it  should  form  part 
of  a  sheet  or  signature.  This  makes  need- 
less delay  and  expense.  When  possible, 
furnish  complete  manuscript  for  each  con- 
secutive page  of  a  publication. 


THE  EXPENSE  OF  PRINTING  A  BOOK. 

This  can  be  determined  only  by  a  special 
estimate  from  a  practical  printer.  Guesses 
and  comparisons  with  the  cost  of  other  pub- 
lications are  of  little  value.  Submit  if  pos- 
sible your  complete  copy  and  plans  to  the 
printer  to  guide  him  in  his  calculations. 

To  prevent  misunderstandings  which  occa- 
sionally arise  from  ambiguous  directions  as 
to  size,  it  is  recommended  to  those  who  are 
seeking  estimates  that  a  piece  of  blank  paper 
be  cut  to  the  exact  size  of  the  leaf  desired,  on 
which  can  be  penciled  the  width  and  length 
of  the  preferred  page.  This  diagram  will 
give  the  printer  more  exact  instruction  than 
that  had  from  a  specification  in  inches,  or 
from  a  reference  to  the  size  of  a  page  in 
another  book. 


ROMAN  AND   ITALIC 
FEINTING  TYPES 


8 
SIX-LINE  PICA  No.  20.     SOLID. 


IUM 

sine 
literis 
Mors  est, 
et  hominis 
vivi  sepul- 
tura. 


SENECA. 


9 
SIX-LINE  PICA  No.  16.     SOLID.* 


HAT 

friend 
can  be 
more  help- 
ful than  a 
book  that 
ennobles? 


10 
FIVE-LINE  PICA  OLD  STYLE.    DOUBLE  LEADED. 


EARN 

to  wait 
for  Time  to 
bring  what 
you  desire. 
It  is  Time 
that  ripens 
the  corn! 


1 1 

FOUR-LINK  PICA  ROMAN.     QUADRUPLK  LKAI>KI>. 


W 


HENa 

proud 
man  keeps 
me  at  my 
distance,  it 
is  comfort- 
ing to  see 
him  keep 
at  his  also. 


SWIFT. 


12 

FOUR-LINE  PICA  OLD  STYLE.     LEADED. 


BEGAN  to 

•  think  quite 


soberly  of  matri- 
mony, and  chose 
my  Wife  as  she 
did  her  wedding 
gown -not  for  a 
fine,  glossy  sur- 
face, but  for  such 
qualities  as  wear. 


GOLDSMITH. 


13 
FOUR-LINE  PICA  No.  16.    TRIPLE  LEADED. 


HEY  well 

may  fear 
fate  who  have 
any  infirmity 
of  purpose  or 
aim;  But  the 
man  that  rests 
on  what  he  is 
has  a  destiny. 


DOUBLE  PARAGON  OLD  STYLE.     LEADED. 


OU  dwell, 
said  he,  in 
the  City  of 
Destruction,  in  the 
place  also  where  I 
was  born:  I  see  it 
to  be  thus;  and  dy- 
ing there,— sooner 
or  later,— you  will 
sink  into  the  place 
that  burns  with  fire 
and  brimstone 


15 
FOUR-LINE  PICA  No.  164.     SOLID.* 


OR  the  other 
employments 
of  life  do  not  suit 
all  times,  ages,  or 
places ;  but  lit- 
erary studies  em- 
ploy the  thoughts 
of  the  young,  and 
are  the  delight  of 
the  old, 


CICERO. 


i6 
DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER  OLD  STYLE.     LEADED. 


HIS  ultra  mer- 
cantile animus 
which  controls 
all  the  designs  of  pub- 
lishers for  the  better 
pleasing  of  the  light 
and  capricious  taste  of 
the  people  is  not  fa- 
vorable for  fine  print- 
ing. Limitations  as  to 
time  and  expense  in- 
evitably decrease  the 
artistic  worth  of  the 
printer's  work. 


CRAPELET. 


DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER   No.  16.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


ORK,  that's  the 
great  thing— 
the  man  who 
works  is  religious;  he 
adds  something  to  the 
world  to  make  it  bet- 
ter, richer,  more  com- 
plete; it  is  capital  of 
which  the  interest  will 
go  on  increasing  incal- 
culably. What  I  call 
"  work"  is  a  man  giving 
his  soul  entirely  to  it. 


STORY. 


i8 
DOUBLE  GRKAT  PRIMER  No.  13.     LEADED.* 


UlDlS(the  Ital- 
ian poet)  end  is 
stated  to  have  been 
hastened  by  the  mis- 
prints in  his  poetical 
paraphrase  npon  the 
Homilies  of  his  pa- 
tron, Clement  Xlth. 
Bnt  compositors  by 
scores  are  annually 
worried  into  early 
graves  by  trying  to 
decipher  wretched- 
ly poor  manuscript. 


DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER  LIGHT  FACE.     LEADED. 


lURING  the  nine- 
teenth centnry 
bookbinding  has  been 
making  rapid  strides, 
not  only  as  a  manu- 
facture, which  is  evi- 
dent in  a  marvelons 
degree,  bnt  also  in  the 
beantifying  of  many 
thousands  of  private 
libraries  with  choice 
specimens  of  beanti- 
fnl  bindings  and  or- 
nate finishing. 


WILLIAM  MATTHEWS. 


2O 
DOUBLE  ENGLISH  OLD  STYLE.     SOLID. 


DO  not  know  a  more 
heartless  sight  than  a 
recent  reprint  of  the 
"Anatomy  of  Melancholy." 
What  need  was  there  of  un- 
earthing the  bones  of  that 
fantastic  old  man,  to  expose 
them  in  a  winding-sheet  of 
the  newest  fashion  to  mod- 
ern censure?  What  hapless 
stationer  could  dream  of 
Burton  becoming  popular? 
The  wretched  Malone  could 
not  do  any  worse  when  he 
bribed  the  sexton  of  Strat- 
ford church  to  let  him  white- 
wash the  painted  effigy  of 
old  Shakspere. 


CHARLES  LAMB. 


21 


DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER  ORNAMENTED  No.  1526.     LEADED. 


of  fed- 
fof  tl\ee 


tl\ou 


of 


old  fellow^  it\  tl^eif 


will  extend 
tl\ee  exdeller^t  divefti^e- 


to  tl\y  took^  ;  tl^ey  pf 
er^tly  l\old  tl\ee  to  tl\en\, 
divert 


ir\ii|d. 


DR.  THOMAS  FULLER. 


22 
DOUBLE  ENGLISH  No.  13.     LEADED. 

H 


HERE  is  a  fashion 
in  reading  as  well 
•  as  in  dress,  which 
lasts  only  for  the  season. 
One  would  imagine  that 
books  were,  like  women, 
the  worse  for  being  old; 
that  they  have  a  pleas- 
ure in  being  read  for  the 
first  time ;  that  they  open 
their  leaves  more  cor- 
dially; that  the  spirit  of 
enjoyment  wears  out  with 
the  spirit  of  novelty ;  and 
that,  after  a  certain  age, 
it  is  high  time  to  put  them 
on  the  shelf. 


WILLIAM  HAZLITT. 


23 
DOUBLE  ENGLISH  LIGHT  FACE.     SOLID. 


LONZO  of  Arra- 
gon  was  wont  to 
say,  in  comment- 
ing on  age,  that 
age  appeared  to  be  best 
in  fonr  things :  old  wood 
best  to  burn,  old  wine. to 
drink,  old  Mends  to  trust, 
and  old  authors  to  read. 
And  the  wise  man  of  the 
Persians  once  said,  when 
asked  by  what  means  he 
had  attained  to  so  high 
a  degree  of  knowledge  : 
"What  I  did  not  know, 
I  was  not  ashamed  to  in- 
quire about,  I  inquire 
about  everything!" 


24 
DOUBLE  PICA  OLD  STYLE.     SOLID. 


O  man  can  comfort- 
ably get  along  with- 
out three  copies  of 
each  book.  One  he 
should  have  for  a 
show  copy,  which  he  will  probably 
keep  at  his  country  house;  another 
he  will  require  for  his  own  use  and 
reference;  and  unless  he  is  inclined 
to  part  with  this,  which  would  be 
very  inconvenient,  or  risk  the  injury 
of  his  best  copy,  he  must  have  a 
third  at  the  service  of  his  friends. 

The  great  point  of  view  in  a 
collector  is  to  possess  that  not  pos- 
sessed by  any  other.  It  is  said  of 
a  collector  lately  deceased,  that  he 
used  to  purchase  scarce  prints  at 
enormous  prices  in  order  to  destroy 
them,  and  thereby  render  the  re- 
maining impressions  more  valuable. 


HEBER. 


25 
DOUBLE  PICA  ORNAMENTED  No.  1526.     LEADED/ 


vklukble 
kqd   otl^ef    wtfit- 
kfe  i:      ecil.    It 


beei\  di$6oYefed  tl\kt  tl\e 

will  fendef  lekd- 


delible  k^  tl\ou^l\  doi|e  witl\ 
L(ky  tl\e  writii\^  ii)  k 
kqd  ponf  ^kin|n\ed  iqilk  upoi\  it. 
Sny  ^pot^  i\ot  wet  kt  fif^t  ir^ky 
l^kre  tl\e  ir^ilk  plkded  upori  tl\eii| 
li^tly  with  k  fekHef.  Tkke  up 
tl^e  pkpef,  let  tl\e  milk  dfkii|  off, 
kqd  wipe  kwky  witl\  tl\e  fektl\ef 
tl\e  dfop^  wl^i6l\  ^olledt  upoi|  tl\e 
lowef  ed^e.  f)fy  it  dkfefully, 

A^ill  be   fouled  to 
indelible.      It  6ki|i|ot  be 
witl\ 


26 
DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  OLD  STYLE  No.  15.     LEADED. 


HAT  a  wonderful  race  the 
Americans  have  become ! 
Every  man  has  his  news- 
paper. See  that  drayman 
there,  sitting  on  his  truck  eagerly  read- 
ing his  newspaper;  and  that  hackman, 
mounted  on  his  perch,  with  his  whip 
on  his  knee,  diving  into  his  newspaper; 
and  yonder  that  laborer,  stopping  on 
the  corner  to  buy  his  newspaper;  and 
see  that  paver,  repairing  the  street,  with 
a  newspaper  sticking  out  of  his  pocket, 
where  he  has  placed  it  for  further  read- 
ing when  he  has  leisure.  So  it  may 
be  seen  in  every  American  town  or  city, 
in  the  booming  mining  settlements  of 
the  far  West  as  well  as  the  humming 
cities  of  the  East.  There  is  nothing 
like  it  in  Europe.  No  other  people, 
through  all  its  ranks,  is  so  well  versed 
in  the  current  information  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  WOrld.  GERMAN  RF.KORM  MESSENGER. 


27 
DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  No.  20.     LEADED. 


HERE  it  was  that  one 
first  came  upon  those 
pretty  little  books,  the 
Elzevir  classics,  a  sort 
of  literary  ban  tarns,  which  are  still 
dear  to  memory,  and  awaken  old 
associations  with  their  dwarfish 
ribbed  backs  and  their  exquisite, 
but  now,  alas!  too  minute,  type. 
The  eyesight  that  could  formerly 
peruse  them  with  ease  has  suf- 
fered decay,  but  they  remain  un- 
changed; and  in  this  respect  they 
are  unlike  many  other  objects  of 
early  interest.  Children,  homes, 
flowers,  animals,  scenery  even, 
all  have  undergone  mutation,  but 
no  perceptible  shade  of  change 
has  yet  passed  over  these  little 
reminders  of  old  times — times 
we  would  like  to  see  again. 


28 
DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  ALDINE.     LEADED.' 


T  is  one  notable  feature 
of  the  history  of  print- 
ing, that  a  large  por- 
tion of  those  who  have 
successfully  prosecuted  the  art  have 
been  celebrated  for  their  superior 
knowledge  of  and  attention  to  press- 
work.  It  is  too  much  the  habit  of 
apprentices  to  devote  their  atten- 
tion exclusively  to  composition,  and 
as  a  consequence  compositors  are 
usually  plenty  and  good  pressmen 
are  comparatively  scarce.  All  the 
money  and  labor  spent  in  purchas- 
ing fonts  of  letter,  and  in  setting 
up  type  correctly  and  elegantly,  is 
well-nigh  useless  if  bad  press-work 
mars  the  product  of  the  type  foun- 
dry and  the  composing-room.  The 
work  that  is  well  balanced  in  all  its 
parts  is  a  delight  to  the  eye. 


PRINTERS'  CIRCULAR. 


29 

DOUBLK  SMALL  PICA  LIGHT  FACK.     LKADKD. 


HEN  some  one  of 
our  relations  was 
discovered  to  be  a 
bad  character,  or  a 
timiblesome  guest,  or  one  we 
desired  to  get  rid  of,  upon  his 
leaving  my  house  I  ever  took 
care  to  lend  him  a  riding  coat, 
or  a  pair  of  boots,  or  sometimes 
a  horse  of  small  value,  and  I 
always  had  the  satisfaction  of 
finding  he  never  came  back 
to  return  them.  By  this  the 
house  was  cleared  of  such  as 
we  did  not  like.  Some  of  these 
visitors  did  us  no  great  honor 
by  their  claims  of  kindred,  as 
we  had  the  blind,  the  maimed 
and  the  halt  among  the  num- 
ber. However,  my  wife  always 
insisted  that  they  should  sit 
with  us  at  the  same  table. 


GOLDSMITH. 


30 
GREAT  PRIMER  No.  20.     SOLID. 


jND  let  us,  after  all,  acknowledge 
that  there  are  few  men  who  are 
entirely  above  the  influence  of 
binding.  No  one  likes  sheep's 
if  51  clothing  for  his  literature,  even 
if  he  should  not  aspire  to  russia  or  morocco. 
Adam  Smith,  one  of  the  least  showy  of  men, 
confessed  himself  to  be  a  beau  in  his  books. 
Poets,  however,  are  apt  to  be  ragamuffins. 
It  was  Thomson,  I  believe,  who  used  to  cut 
the  leaves  with  his  snuffers.  Perhaps  an 
event  in  his  early  career  may  have  soured 
him.  It  is  said  that  he  had  an  uncle,  a  clever, 
active  mechanic,  who  could  do  many  things 
with  his  hands,  and  contemplated  James's 
indolent,  dreamy,  "reckless"  character  with 
impatient  disgust.  When  the  first  of  "The 
Seasons" — "Winter"  it  was,  I  believe  —  had 
been  completed  at  press,  Jamie  thought,  by 
a  presentation  copy,  to  triumph  over  his 
uncle's  skepticism,  and  to  propitiate  his  good 
opinion  he  had  the  book  handsomely  bound. 
The  old  man  never  looked  inside,  or  asked 
what  the  book  was  about,  but,  turning  it 
round  and  round  with  his  fingers  in  gratified 
admiration,  exclaimed — "Come,  is  that  real- 
ly our  Jamie's  doin'  now?  Weel,  I  never 
thought  the  cratur  wad  hae  had  the  handi- 
craft to  do  the  like !" 


BURTON. 


GKKAT  PRIMER  No.  16.     SOLID. 


0  you  know  that  all  Grub-Street 
was  dead  and  gone  last  week  ? 
No  more  ghosts  or  murders  now 
for  love  or  money.      I  worked  it 

1  very  close  the  last  fortnight,  and 
published  at  least  seven  papers  of  my  own, 
besides  some  of  other  people's ;  but  now  every 
single  half-sheet  pays  a  halfpenny  tribute  to 
the  queen.      The  'Observator'  is  fallen;  the 
'Medleys'   are   jumbled    together    with    the 
'Flying    Post';    the    'Examiner'    is    deadly 
sick;  the  ' Spectator'  keeps  up  and  doubles 
its  price;  I  know  not  how  long  it  will  hold. 
Have  you  seen  the  red  stamp  the  papers  are 
marked  with  ?     I  think  the  stamping  alone  is 
worth  a  halfpenny."     The  stamp  mark  upon 
the  newspapers  was  a  rose  and  thistle  joined 
by  the  stalks,  and  inclosing  between  the  Irish 
shamrock ;  the  whole  three  were  surmounted 
by  a  crown.      It  was  also  enacted  "that  one 
printed  copy  of  every  pamphlet,  printed  or 
published  within  London  or  Westminster,  or 
the  weekly  bill  of  mortality,  shall  within  six 
days  after  the  printing  be  brought  to  the  head 
office,  and  the  title  thereof,  with  the  number 
of  sheets,  and  the  duty  hereby  charged,  shall 
be  entered;  which  duty  shall  be  paid  to  the 
receiver-general,  who  shall  give  a  receipt  for 
the  same,  etc. 


9? 

SWIFT. 


GREAT  PRIMER  No.  20.     LEADED. 


UBSCRIBERS  for  one  copy 
of  the  "Arizona  Kicker"  will  be 
presented  with  a  box  of  Patent 
Petroleum  Paste  Blacking.  This 
is  a  superior  article.  It  blacks  boots  or 
stoves,  and  may  be  used  as  a  hair  dye. 

Subscribers  for  two  single  copies  will 
receive  a  box  of  French-American  sardines. 

Subscribers  for  five  copies  at  the  same 
time  will  be  presented  with  a  pair  of  iron- 
clad spectacles  with  real  glass  eyes,  war- 
ranted to  suit  one  age  as  well  as  another. 

Subscribers  for  ten  copies  simultane- 
ously will  be  entitled  to  a  patent  adjustable 
boot-jack  which  can  also  be  used  as  a  cork- 
screw, a  coffee-mill,  or  an  inkstand. 

Subscribers  for  twenty-five  copies,  as 
above,  will  receive  a  marble  bureau  with 
a  mahogany  top,  custom  made. 

Subscribers  for  fifty  copies,  like  con- 
dition, will  receive  a  seven-octave  sewing 
machine  with  the  Agraff  attachment. 

If  any  person  should  desire  to  subscribe 
for  a  larger  number  of  copies,  and  is  pre- 
pared to  pay  for  the  same  at  sight,  he  may 
address  this  office  for  a  special  inducement. 


HUDSON'S  JOURNALISM. 


33 
GREAT  PRIMER  No.  16.     LEADED. 

il 

HE  pages  of  a  book  or  a  magazine 
|  should  never  be  cut  open  with  any- 
thing but  a  paper-cutter.     A  finger 
I  is  too  blunt,  and  tears  the  edges. 


A  knife  is  too  sharp,  and  may  cut  the  edges 
unequally.  The  best  paper-cutter  is  a  thin 
slip  of  ivory.  Wood  and  bone  are  nearly  as 
good,  but  metal  is  not.  Never  deface  books 
in  any  way.  Never  scribble  on  them  needless- 
ly, or  disfigure  them  with  unnecessary  stamps, 
or  with  stamps  in  inappropriate  places.  A 
good  book  is  a  good  friend,  and  ought  to 
be  treated  with  the  respect  due  to  a  friend. 
Never  wet  your  fingers  to  turn  over  a  leaf. 
Never  turn  down  a  corner  of  a  page  to  hold 
your  place.  Never  put  in  a  soiled  playing- 
card,  or  a  stained  envelope,  or  a  bit  of  dirty 
string,  or  a  piece  of  damp  newspaper.  Al- 
ways use  a  regular  book-mark.  The  sim- 
plest, and  one  of  the  best,  is  a  card  as  large 
as  a  small  visiting  card.  By  cutting  this 
card  twice  longitudinally  from  one  end  almost 
to  the  other,  you  will  have  a  three-legged 
book-mark  which  rides  a-straddle  of  the  page 
— one  leg  on  the  page  below  and  two  on  the 
page  you  wish  to  open  at. 


ARTHUR  PENN. 


34 
GREAT  PRIMER  No.  15.     LEADED. 


ASTES  in  color  seem  to  be  limited 
geographically.  In  Italy  books  are 
bound  mostly  in  white  parchment; 
in  France,  in  red  morocco ;  in  Eng- 
land royal  purple  was  the  prevailing  tint,  and 
in  America  it  is  brown.  There  are  many  ex- 
ceptional instances.  The  founder  of  the  great 
Harleian  Library,  now  a  part  of  the  British 
Museum,  clad  all  the  volumes  he  collected  in 
red  morocco.  Beckford,  a  superb  bibliophile, 
used  unvaryingly  an  olive-colored  binding.  Dr. 
Cogswell,  who  organized  the  Astor  Library,  in- 
sisted on  having  quite  a  considerable  number  of 
volumes  bound  in  blue  skiver  backs  and  corners. 
Thomas  P.  Barton,  to  whom  Richard  Grant 
White  dedicated  his  Shakespeare,  went  to  enor- 
mous expense,  risk,  and  trouble  to  rebind  his 
Shakespearean  collection,  which  was  very  large, 
uniformly  in  red  morocco.  He  often  purchased 
a  rare  work  at  some  celebrated  library  in  Europe, 
and  found  it  gorgeously  finished  in  purple  or 
green;  but  in  order  to  carry  out  his  whim  the 
beautiful  cover  had  to  be  torn  off  and  the  vol- 
ume rebound  to  match  his  collection.  George 
T.  Strong,  a  gentleman  of  very  quiet  but  elegant 
taste,  had  a  preference  for  sober  browns. 


35 
GREAT  PRIMER  LIGHT  FACE.     LEADED. 


TORN  page  of  a  book  may 
be  neatly  mended  in  the 
following  manner  :  Pro- 
cure paper  similar  to  the 
original  leaf,  cut  it  to  correspond 
exactly  with  the  missing  portion, 
adjust  it  precisely  to  the  torn  edge 
and  touch  the  line  of  junction  very 
lightly  "with  paste  made  from  rice 
flour ;  then  place  a  strip  of  tissue 
paper  on  each  side  of  the  leaf  and 
smooth  out  carefully  with  a  folder. 
Close  the  volume  and  allow  it  to 
dry  thoroughly ;  remove  the  tissue 
paper  with  a  delicate  touch,  and 
the  portions  that  remain  adhering 
to  the  seam  or  line  of  junction  will 
prove  sufficient  -to  secure  the  new 
patch  to  the  leaf.  In  supplying 
the  wanting  text,  an  imitation  of 
the  original  adds  much  to  the  api- 
pearance  of  the  page.  Ventilation 
and  light  will  prevent  books  from 
suffering  from  mold  and  weather- 
stain  ;  dusting  and  use  preserve 
them  from  insects. 


36 
GREAT  PRIMER  ORNAMENTED  No.  1526.     LEADED. 


dklled 

\ool  booM,  Ikw 

idkl  kqd  tedl\nidkl  wofk$,  kfe  u^uklly 
^udde^ful,  fof  tl\ey  kfe  bk^ed  upon  ^e- 
tl\e  extent  of  wl)icil|  <iar\  be  ^ti^ed  witt\ 
oif  le^  kddufkdy.     On  tl\e  otl\ef 
tl\e  pnblicktioi|  of  book^  ii\  litei'ktui'e 

r\  d^kfkdtef,  ^ir\de  ttje 
by  Ikw^  wl\idl\  itoif\  t^eif 
dai\i\ot  be,  of  kt  ki\y  tkte  kfe  i)ot,  pfopefly  de- 
It  ig  po^ible  to  ki\ow  kbont  l\ow 
fe  kf e  iq  k  dommuiiity^  ki\d 
tl\e  numbei4  of  doj)ie^  tl\ey  will  tkke  of  a  l\ki)d- 
book  iof  tl\eif  pi'ofe^ioi\ ;  it  i^  in|po^ible  to 
iofn\  mofe  tl\kr\  tl\e  mefe^t  ^ue^  k^  to 
mkt\y  fekdei4^  ii|  tl\e  dommnruty  will 
to  k  poen\  wl\idl\  l\k^  ju^t  beer\  dfekted. 

rq  kll  otl\er  kii\d^  of  ^j)edulktioi\,  tl\e  out- 
publid  ^ekf^  of  tl\e  ^kqd  ^udde^e^,  ki\d 
tkke^  little  kddoni|t  of  tl\e  rqi^efkble  fkilufe^. 
¥l\e  kutl^oi4  wl\o^e  book  fkil^  dkt\  fii\d  ^ome 
i^fkdtioi)  it\  dfkwir\^  kr\d  qukftefiii^  tl\e 
— ii\  k  privkte  diddle  of  Mei\d$.  But  tl\e  pub- 
li$l\ef  i^  like  tl\e  iti^nfknde  doir|pki\y  kftef  k 
fife-  -i\obody  wkste^  kr^y  pity  oi|  l)in|. 
i0  tl\e  fedonqpen^e  of  kll  wl\o 


KIVKRSIOE  BULLETIN. 


37 
TWO-LINE  PEARL  OLD  STYLE  CONDENSED.    QUADRUPLE  LEADED. 


ANTE  one  day  went  to  the  house  of  a  bookseller, 
from  one  of  whose  windows  he  had  been  invit- 
ed to  witness  a  public  show  exhibited  in  the 
square  below  ;  taking  up  by  chance  a  book,  he  soon  be- 
came so  absorbed  in  it  that  on  returning  home  he  sol- 
emnly declared  he  had  neither  seen  nor  heard  anything 
whatever  of  all  that  had  taken  place  before  his  eyes. 
Virgil  was  so  fond  of  salt  that  he  seldom  went  without 
a  box  full  in  his  pocket,  which  he  made  use  of  from  time 
to  time  as  men  of  the  present  day  use  tobacco.  Thomas 
Hood  was  born,  married,  and  died  in  the  month  of  May. 
A  curious  calculation  has  been  made,  resulting  in  the 
statement  that  the  single  word  "[laughter]"  in  the  "Con- 
gressional Globe,"  as  it  occurs  in  the  speeches  of  Con- 
gressmen, has  during  the  last  thirty  years  cost  the 
government  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  while  the 
word  "  [applause] "  has  cost  twice  that  sum.  An  editor's 
loaded  pistol  having  been  purloined  by  some  daring 
scamp,  he  advertises  that  if  the  thief  will  return  it  he 
will  give  him  the  contents  and  no  questions  asked.  A 
Western  editor  met  a  well  educated  farmer  recently, 
and  said  to  him  that  he  would  like  to  have  something 
from  his  pen ;  the  farmer  sent  him  a  pig,  and  charged 
him  $9.75  for  it.  A  bachelor  editor,  who  had  a  pretty 
unmarried  sister,  wrote  to  another  editor  similarly  cir- 
cumstanced, "Please  exchange."  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  has  made  most  fame  as  a  writer,  but  most  money 
as  a  very  successful  physician  and  surgeon. . 


38 

ENGLISH  No.  20.     SOLID. 


ANY  people,  besides  politicians,  are  of 
opinion  that  they  ought  to  be  able  easily 
to  make  their  living  in  journalism.  We 
know  men  who  have  an  idea  that  be- 
cause their  clever,  off-hand  critiques  of 
authors  and  their  bright,  descriptive  sketches  have 
moved  the  admiration  of  the  home  circle,  therefore 
they  are  fully  equipped  to  "  write  for  the  newspapers." 
We  may  inform  these  persons  that  journalism  is 
work,  unostentatious  drudgery,  a  profession  which 
exacts  of  its  votaries  the  most  constant  labor — dry, 
hard,  and  not  infrequently  repulsive  labor.  To  read 
a  book  at  one's  leisure,  and  then  sketch  the  features 
in  it  for  a  friend  or  relative  in  the  familiar  style  of 
personal  intercourse,  is  one  affair.  To  cram  a  vol- 
ume down  one's  mental  throat  in  a  half-hour,  and  be 
able  to  show  up  the  points  most  representative  of  its 
merits  and  defects,  requires  years  of  training  added 
to  rare  adaptability  for  the  work. 

The  journalist,  if  fit  to' be  so  designated,  must  daily 
go  patiently  over  at  least  one  representative  news- 
paper of  each  party  from  every  section  of  the  country. 
An  editor,  or  a  contributor  of  the  higher  order, 
must  be  "up"  in  all  that  concerns  his  own  constitu- 
ency, and  well  posted  in  all  that  goes  forward  of  the 
large  events  in  the  civilized  world.  Writing  is  but 
a  small  part  of  his  labor.  To  know  what  to  write, 
when  to  write  it,  and  just  how  much  to  write — like 
Dogberry's  reading  and  writing — these  instincts 
come  largely  by  nature.  Editors  of  the  very  high- 
est order  "are  born,  not  made." 

Editors  and  publishers  who  succeed  are  those  not 
merely  adapted  by  mental  structure  to  the  business, 
but  they  are  also  the  men  or  women  who  work 
systematically  and  spare  not  themselves,  regardless 
whether  the  great  public  smiles  or  frowns  upon  the 
fruits  of  their  labors. 


39 
ENGLISH  No.  16.     SOLID. 


||HERE  is  no  safer  property  in  which  to  invest 
money  than  in  good  books  and  good  pictures, 
provided,  of  course,  they  are  bought  with  good 
judgment  and  a  knowledge  of  their  real  value, 
which,  in  the  case  of  books,  depends  largely  upon  their 
rarity.  Turner's  drawing  of  Bamborough  Castle  was 
purchased  in  1858  for  £400;  it  was  sold  in  1859  for 
£450,  and  in  1872,  at  Mr.  Gillott's  sale,  for  £3,307. 
His  picture  of  the  Grand  Canal,  for  which  he  received 
£300,  brought  at  auction,  in  July  last,  £7,350,  the 
largest  sum  ever  paid  for  a  picture  in  this  W7ay.  David 
Cox  painted  his  picture  of  Rhyl  for  160  guineas ;  it  was 
sold  four  years  ago  for  £2,300.  His  Hayfield,  for  which 
he  received  about  the  same  price,  sold  in  July  last  for 
£2,950.  Muller  painted  his  Chess  Players  in  1843  for 
£25;  it  was  sold  in  1874  for  £4,053.  A  copy  of  the 
Mazarin  Bible  on  vellum  brought,  at  the  Perkins  sale, 
£3,500.  When  next  offered  for  sale  it  will  probably 
bring  £5,000.  Eliot's  Indian  Bible  could  be  bought  a 
few  years  ago  for  |500.  A  copy  is  now  offered  for  sale 
in  London,  on  Quaritch's  catalogue,  for  the  quotation  of 
$1,500  in  gold.  A  copy  of  the  first  English  translation 
of  the  Bible  by  Coverdale  fetched  £360.  A  Latin  Bible, 
printed  by  Jenson  in  1476,  on  vellum,  was  sold  recently 
for  £370  ;  a  first  edition  of  the  Bible  in  German,  for  £75 ; 
and  another,  without  date  or  printer's  name,  but  supposed 
to  have  been  printed  circa  1473  at  Augsburg,  for  £32. 
An  early  Latin  Psalm,  on  vellum,  with  miniatures  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  style,  has  just  brought  £79.  Boccaccio's 
Decameron,  first  edition  of  Valdarfer,  1471,  was  trans- 
ferred from  the  Duke  of  Roxburghe  to  the  Duke  of 
Marlborough  for  £2,260.  In  the  year  1300  some  books 
bequeathed  to  Merton  College,  Oxford,  were  thus  valued  : 
a  Concordentia,  10  shillings;  the  Four  Great  Prophets,  5 
shillings  ;  a  Psalter,  10  shillings ;  St.  Augustine  on  Gen- 
esis, 10  shillings.  What  amounts  do  you  think  these 
could  be  made  to  fetch  in  a  modern  auction  room'? 


AMERICAN  BIBLIOPOLIST. 


40 
ENGLISH  No.  20.     LEADED. 


In 

ijN  printing,  it  seemeth  that  China  ought 
!  to  have  the  precedence  of  other  nations, 
;  for  according  to  their  books  they  have 
t  used  it  there  sixteen  hundred  years ;  but 
it  is  not,  as  I  said  before,  like  unto  ours  in  Europe, 
for  their  letters  are  engraved  on  tables  of  wood. 
The  author  of  the  book  ordereth  what  letter  he  will 
have,  either  great,  little,  or  middle-sized  ;  or,  rather, 
he  giveth  his  manuscript  to  the  graver,  who  maketh 
his  tables  of  the  same  bigness  with  the  sheets  that 
are  given  him,  and,  pasting  the  leaves  upon  the 
tables  with  the  wrong  side  outwards,  he  engraveth 
the  letters  as  he  findeth  them,  with  much  facility  and 
exactness,  and  without  making  any  errata.  Their 
writing  is  not  upon  both  sides  the  paper,  as  among 
us,  but  on  one  side  only ;  and  the  reason  that  their 
books  seem  to  be  written  on  both  sides  is,  because 
the  white  side  is  hidden  within  the  fold. 

They  print  likewise  with  tables  of  stone,  with  this 
difference,  that  the  paper  is  made  all  black  and  the 
letters  remain  white,  because  when  they  print  thus, 
they  lay  the  ink  upon  the  superficies  of  the  stone  ; 
but  in  the  tables  of  wood  they  put  it  only  in  the 
hollow  of  the  engraving.  This  printing  serveth  only 
for  epitaphs,  pictures,  trees,  mountains,  and  such  like 
things,  whereof  they  do  desire  to  have  the  memo- 
ries preserved,  and  they  have  very  many  prints  of 
this  kind.  Any  work  which  they  print,  as  they  do 
in  great  numbers,  remaineth  always  entire  in  the 
print  on  the  tables,  to  be  repeated  as  often  as  they 
please,  without  any  new  expense  or  trouble  in  set- 
ting for  the  press  as  there  is  in  our  printing. 


ENGLISH  No.  16.     LEADED. 


HE  first  time  a  man  looks  at 
an  advertisement  he  does 
not  see  it.  The  second 
time,  he  does  not  notice  it. 
The  third  time,  he  is  dimly 
conscious  of  it.  The  fourth 
time,  he  faintly  remembers 
having  seen  something  of 
the  kind  before.  The  fifth 
time,  he  half  reads  it.  The 
sixth  time,  he  turns  up  his  nose  at  it.  The  seventh  time, 
he  reads  it  through  and  says,  "Pshaw!"  The  eighth  time, 
he  ejaculates,  "Here's  that  confounded  thing  again!" 
The  ninth  time,  he  wonders  if  "there's  anything  in  it." 
The  tenth  time,  he  thinks  it  might  possibly  suit  some  one 
else's  case.  The  eleventh  time,  he  thinks  he  will  ask 
his  neighbor  if  he  has  tried  it  or  knows  anything  about 
it.  The  twelfth  time,  he  wonders  how  the  advertiser 
can  make  it  pay.  The  thirteenth  time,  he  rather  thinks 
it  must  be  a  good  thing.  The  fourteenth  time,  he 
appears  to  think  it  is  what  he  has  wanted  for  a  long 
time.  The  fifteenth  time,  he  resolves  to  try  it  as  soon 
as  he  can  afford  it.  The  sixteenth  time,  he  examines 
the  address  carefully  and  makes  a  memorandum  of  it. 
The  seventeenth  time,  he  is  painfully  reminded  how  much 
he  needs  that  particularly  excellent  article.  The  eigh- 
teenth time,  he  counts  his  money  to  see  how  much  he 
would  have  left  if  he  bought  it ;  and  the  nineteenth  time, 
he  frantically  rushes  in  a  fit  of  desperation  and  buys  it. 
Moral :  The  successful  tradesman  keeps  his  name  before 
the  public  by  persistent  advertising. 


42 
PICA  No.  20.     SOLID.    41  LINES,  395  WORDS. 


VEN  logic  has  not  succeeded  as  yet  in  discovering 
the  means  of  framing  a  title-page  which  shall  be 
exhaustive,  as  it  is  termed,  and  constitute  an  infal- 
lible finger-post  to  the  nature  of  a  book.  From  the 
beginning  of  all  literature  it  may  be  said  that  man 
has  been  continually  struggling  after  this  achievement,  and 
struggling  in  vain  ;  and  it  is  a  humiliating  fact  that  the 
greatest  adepts,  abandoning  the  effort  in  despair,  have  taken 
refuge  in  some  fortuitous  word,  which  has  served  their  pur- 
pose better  than  the  best  results  of  their  logical  analysis. 
The  book  which  has  been  the  supreme  ruler  of  the  intellect 
in  this  kind  of  work  stands  forth  as  an  illustrious  example 
of  failure.  To  those  writings  of  Aristotle  which  dealt  with 
mind  his  editing  pupils  could  give  no  name,  therefore  they 
called  them  the  things  after  the  physics — the  Metaphysics; 
and  that  fortuitous  title  the  great  arena  of  thought  to  which 
they  refer  still  bears,  despite  the  efforts  of  critical  students 
to  supply  an  apter  designation  in  such  words  as  Psychology, 
Pneumatology,  and  Transcendentalism. 

Writhing  under  this  nightmare  kind  of  difficulty,  men  in 
later  times  tried  to  achieve  completeness  by  lengthening  the 
title-page ;  but  they  found  that  the  longer  they  made  it,  the 
more  it  wriggled  itself  into  devious  tracks,  and  the  farther 
did  it  depart  from  a  comprehensive  name.  Some  title-pages 
in  old  folios  make  about  half  an  hour's  reading.  One  ad- 
vantage, however,  was  found  in  these  lengthy  titles — they 
afforded  to  controversialists  a  means  of  condensing  the  pith 
of  their  malignity  towards  each  other,  and  throwing  it,  as  it 
were,  right  in  the  face  of  the  adversary.  It  will  thus  often 
happen  that  the  controversialist  states  his  case  first  in  the 
title-page  ;  he  then  gives  it  at  greater  length  in  the  intro- 
duction ;  again,  perhaps,  in  a  preface ;  a  third  time  in  an 
analytical  form,  through  means  of  a  table  of  contents  ;  after 
all  this  skirmishing,  he  brings  up  his  heavy  columns  in  the 
body  of  the  book. 

Busy  men  of  the  present  day  look  to  the  title-page  to 
help  them  in  deciding  what  books  to  read,  just  as  the  head- 
lines in  their  favorite  newspapers  inform  them  of  current 
events  and  invite  or  repel  further  research.  It  is  better  to 
spend  half  an  hour  on  an  exhaustive  title-page  than  to  waste 
several  hours  upon  an  uninstructive  book. 


43 
PICA  No.  ii.     SOLID.    41  LINKS,  388  WORDS. 


NDEED,  volumes  are  in  their  varied  external 
conditions  much  like  human  beings.  There 
are  some  stout  and  others  frail,  some  healthy 
and  others  sickly  ;  and  it  happens  often  that 
the  least  robust  are  the  most  precious.  The  full,  fresh 
health  of  some  of  the  old  folio  fathers  and  schoolmen, 
ranged  side  by  side  in  solemn  state  on  the  oaken  shelves 
of  some  venerable  repository,  is  apt  to  surprise  those  who 
expect  mouldy  decay :  the  stiff,  hard  binding  is  as  an- 
gular as  ever ;  there  is  no  abrasion  of  the  leaves,  not  a 
single  dog-ear  or  a  spot,  nor  even  a  dust-border  upon  the 
mellowed  white  of  the  margin.  So,  too,  of  those  quarto 
civilians  and  canonists  of  Ley  den  and  Amsterdam,  with 
their  smooth  white  vellum  coats,  bearing  so  generic  a 
resemblance  to  Dutch  cheeses  that  they  might  easily  be 
supposed  to  represent  the  experiments  of  some  Grouda 
dairyman  on  the  quadrature  of  the  circle.  An  easy  life 
and  an  established  position  in  society  are  the  secret  of 
their  excellent  preservation  and  condition.  Their  re- 
pose has  been  little  disturbed  by  intrusive  readers  and 
unceremonious  investigators,  and  their  repute  for  solid 
learning  has  given  them  a  claim  to  attention  and  care- 
ful preservation.  It  has  sometimes  occurred  to  me  to 
penetrate  to  the  heart  of  one  of  these  solid  volumes  and 
find  it  closed  in  this  wise :  As  the  binder  of  a  book  is 
himself  bound  to  cut  off  as  little  as  possible  of  its  white 
margin,  it  -may  take  place,  if  any  of  the  leaves  are  in- 
accurately folded,  that  their  edges  are  not  cut,  and  that, 
as  to  such  leaves,  the  book  is  in  the  uncut  condition  so 
severely  denounced  by  impatient  readers.  So  have  I 
sometimes  had  to  open  with  a  paper-cutter  the  pages 
which  had  shut  up  for  two  hundred  years  that  knowl- 
edge which  the  ponderous  volume  pretended  to  be  dis- 
tributing abroad  from  its  place  of  dignity  on  the  shelf. 
Sometimes,  also,  there  will  drop  out  of  a  heavy  folio  a 
little  slip  of  orange-yellow  paper  covered  with  some 
cabalistic-looking  characters,  which  a  careful  study  dis- 
covers to  be  a  hint,  conveyed  in  high  or  low  Dutch,  that 
the  dealer  from  whom  the  volume  was  purchased  would 
be  rather  gratified  than  otherwise  should  the  purchaser 
be  pleased  to  remit  to  him  the  price  of  it. 


44 
PICA  No.  20.     LEADED.     35  LINES,  325  WORDS. 


JR.  JOHNSON  published  the  following  curious 
1  advertisement  in  order  to  suppress  the  pirat- 
j  ical  practice  of  inserting  his  Idlers,  without  any 

acknowledgment,  in  other  publications : 
"London,  January  5th,  1759. — (Advertisement.) 
"The  proprietors  of  the  papers  entitled  The  Idler,  having 
found  that  those  essays  are  inserted  in  the  newspapers  and 
magazines  with  so  little  regard  to  justice  or  decency  that 
the  Universal  Chronicle,  in  which  they  first  appear,  is  not 
always  mentioned,  think  it  necessary  to  declare  to  the  pub- 
lishers of  those  collections  that,  however  patiently  they  have 
hitherto  endured  these  injuries,  they  have  determined  to  en- 
dure them  no  longer.  They  have  seen  essays  for  which  a 
very  large  price  is  paid  transferred  with  the  most  shameless 
rapacity  into  the  weekly  or  monthly  compilations,  and  their 
right,  at  least  for  the  present,  alienated  from  them  before 
they  could  themselves  be  said  to  enjoy  it.  But  they  would 
not  Willingly  be  thought  to  want  tenderness  even  for  men 
by  whom  no  tenderness  hath  been  shown.  The  past  is 
without  remedy,  and  shall  be  without  resentment.  But 
those  who  have  been  thus  busy  with  their  sickles  in  the 
fields  of  their  neighbours  are  henceforward  to  take  notice 
that  the  time  of  impunity  is  at  an  end.  Whoever  shall, 
without  our  leave,  lay  the  hand  of  rapine  upon  our  papers, 
is  to  expect  that  we  shall  vindicate  our  due.  We  shall 
lay  hold,  in  our  turn,  on  their  copies,  degrade  them  from 
the  pomp  of  wide  margin  and  diffuse  typography,  contract 
them  into  a  narrow  space,  and  sell  them  at  an  humble 
price ;  yet  not  with  a  view  of  growing  rich  by  confiscations, 
for  we  think  not  much  better  of  money  got  by  punishment 
than  by  crimes :  we  shall,  therefore,  when  our  losses  are 
repaid,  give  what  profit  shall  remain  to  the  magdalens :  for 
we  know  not  who  can  be  more  properly  taxed  for  the  sup- 
port of  penitent  prostitutes,  than  prostitutes  in  whom  there 
yet  appears  neither  penitence  nor  shame." 


45 
PICA  No.  ii.     LEADED.     35  LINES,  353  WORDS. 


OOKS  I  consider  as  spirits  walking  abroad  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  A  book  is  a  voice  to 
which  one  seems  compelled  to  listen — a  voice 
which  addresses  itself  to  you ;  it  is  the  living 
thought  of  a  person  separated  from  you  only  by  space  of 
time ;  it  is  a  burning  intellect.  The  books  collected  in  a 
library,  viewed  with  the  eyes  of  the  mind,  represent  to 
us  the  master  spirits  of  every  country  and  of  every  age, 
who  are  there  present  with  us  to  speak,  to  instruct,  and 
to  console  us.  Note  that  books  alone  endure ;  men  pass 
away,  monuments  crumble  into  dust ;  but  what  remains, 
what  survives,  is  human  thought.  I  am  told  that  Mo- 
liere  is  dead ;  I  deny  it.  Is  he  not  present  ?  When  I 
entertain  myself  with  him,  is  he  not  there  $  Madame 
de  Sevigne,  they  say,  was  buried  in  1696.  I  maintain 
that  yesterday  I  was  in  communion  with  her.  I  know 
her  just  as  I  know  Coulanges,  Madame  de  Grignon,  La 
Rochefoucauld,  and  all  her  friends.  For  me  all  that 
world  lives,  and  I  live  with  them.  The  book,  or  rather 
the  intelligence  preserved  in  the  book,  is  society  which 
one  can  enjoy  either  in  prosperous  or  in  adverse  days. 
Do  we  wish  for  amusement  ?  Let  us  take  up  our  "Don 
Quixote" ;  we  shall  laugh  as  we  never  laughed  before. 
Or  are  we  in  sorrow'?  Read  the  "Imitation  of  Christ." 
In  whatever  state  we  may  be  books  are  ever  welcome. 
On  the  eve  of  departure,  is  it  not  to  a  book  we  turn  for 
consolation  ?  Is  it  not  the  "Evangelists"  that  teach  us 
how  to  endure  suffering  by  telling  us  of  words  of  Him 
who  endured  long  misery  and  every  suffering  ?  Every- 
where and  at  all  times  a  book  is  of  use,  and  he  who  can 
read  has  more  enjoyment  at  his  command  than  many  a 
monarch,  for  he  has  a  court  of  faithful  friends  who  ever 
surround  and  minister  to  him.  Our  friends  often  weary 
us ;  but  if  a  book  fatigues  us  we  put  it  aside  without 
any  fear  of  its  being  offended,  and  take  up  another. 


M.  LABOULAYE. 


46 
PICA  No.  15.     LEADED.     35  LINES,  374  WORDS. 


INTERS  are  often  asked  in  what  way  various  kinds 
of  paper  obtained  the  peculiar  names  they  bear.  Here 
is  the  answer :  In  ancient  times,  when  comparatively 
few  people  could  read,  pictures  of  every  kind  were 
much  in  use  where  writing  is  now  employed.  Every  shop,  for 
instance,  had  its  sign,  as  well  as  every  public  house,  and  those 
signs  were  not  then,  as  they  often  are  now,  only  painted  on  a 
board,  but  were  invariably  actual -models  of  the  thing  which  the 
sign  expressed — as  we  still  occasionally  see  some  such  sign  as  a 
bee-hive,  a  tea-canister,  a  doll,  or  the  like.  For  the  same  reason 
printers  employed  some  device,  which  they  put  upon  their  title- 
pages  and  at  the  end  of  their  books.  And  paper-makers  also 
introduced  marks  by  way  of  distinguishing  the  paper  of  their 
manufacture  from  that  of  others.  These  marks,  becoming  com- 
mon, naturally  gave  their  names  to  different  sorts  of  paper.  A 
favorite  paper-mark  between  1540  and  1560  was  the  jug  or  pot, 
and  would  appear  to  have  originated  the  term  pot  paper.  The 
fool's  cap  was  a  later  device,  and  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
nearly  of  such  long  continuance  as  the  former.  It  has  given 
place  to  the  figure  of  Britannia,  or  that  of  a  lion  rampant  sup- 
porting the  cap  of  liberty  on  a  pole.  The  name,  however,  has 
continued,  and  we  still  denominate  paper  of  a  particular  size  by 
the  title  of  "foolscap."  Post  paper  seems  to  have  derived  its 
name  from  the  post-horn,  which  at  one  time  was  its  distinguishing 
mark.  It  does  not  appear  to  have  been  used  prior  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  General  Post  Office  (1670),  when  it  became  the 
custom  to  blow  a  horn;  to  which  circumstance,  no  doubt,  we  may 
attribute  its  introduction.  Bath  post  is  so  named  after  that  fash- 
ionable city.  Demy  is  from  the  French  demi,  signifying  an 
intermediate  size.  Royal  and  crown  explain  their  origin,  and 
many  other  names,  such  as  commercial  and  packet  note,  check 
folio,  medium,  super-royal,  imperial,  elephant,  columbier,  atlas, 
double  medium,  and  double  elephant,  were  invented  to  denote 
some  early  peculiarity  of  size,  use,  or  mark,  which,  though  the 
name  remains,  has  now  nearly  or  quite  disappeared. 

LONDON  PRINTERS'  REGISTER. 


47 
PICA  LIGHT  FACE.     LEADED.    35  LINES,  293  WORDS. 


OR  Bookes  are  not  absolutely  dead 
things,  but  they  doe  contain  a  poten- 
cie  of  life  in  them  to  be  as  active  as 
that  soule  was  whose  progeny  they 
are  ;  nay  they  do  preserve  as  in  a  violl 
the  purest  efficacie  and  extraction 
of  that  living  intellect  that  bred  them.  I  know 
they  are  as  lively,  and  as  vigorously  productive, 
as  those  fabulous  Dragons  teeth ;  and  being  sown 
up  and  down,  may  chance  to  spring  up  armed 
men.  And  yet  on  the  other  hand  unlesse  wari- 
nesse  be  us'd,  as  good  almost  kill  a  Man  as  kill 
a  good  Book ;  who  kills  a  Man  kills  a  reasonable 
creature,  Gods  Image;  but  hee  who  destroyes  a 
good  Booke,  kills  reason  it  selfe,  kills  the  very 
Image  of  God,  as  it  were  in  the  eye.  Many  a 
man  lives  a  burden  to  the  Earth;  but  a  good 
Booke  is  the  pretious  life-blood  of  a  master 
spirit,  imbalin'd  and  treasured  up  on  purpose 
to  a  life  beyond  life.  Tis  true,  no  age  can  re- 
store a  life,  whereof  perhaps  there  is  no  great 
losse  ;  and  revolutions  of  ages  doe  not  oft  recover 
the  losse  of  a  rejected  truth,  for  the  want  of 
which  whole  Nations  fare  the  worse.  We  should 
be  wary  therefore  what  persecution  we  raise 
against  the  living  labours  of  publick  men,  how 
we  spill  that  seasoned  life  of  man  preserved  and 
stored  up  in  Books  ;  since  we  see  a  kinde  of  homi- 
cide may  be  thus  committed,  sometimes  a  mar- 
tyrdome,  and  if  it  extend  to  the  whole  impres- 
sion, a  kinde  of  massacre,  whereof  the  execution 
ends  not  in  the  slaying  of  an  elementall  life,  but 
strikes  at  that  ethereall  and  fift  [first]  essence, 
the  breath  of  reason  it  selfe,  slaies  an  immortality 
rather  than  a  life. 


48 
ELZEVIR,  BODY  14.     LEADED.     29  LINES,  253  WORDS. 


I RISTOTLE  tells  us  that  the  world  is  a  copy 
|  or  transcript  of  those  ideas  which  are  in 
SI-  the  mind  of  the  first  Being,  and  that  those 
ideas  which  are  in  the  mind  of  man  are  a  transcript 
of  the  world.  To  this  may  be  added,  that  words 
are  the  transcript  of  those  ideas  which  are  in  the 
mind  of  man,  and  that  writing  or  printing  are  the 
transcript  of  words.  As  the  Supreme  Being  has 
expressed  and  as  it  were  printed  his  ideas  in  the 
creation,  men  express  their  ideas  in  books,  which 
by  this  great  invention  of  these  latter  ages  may  last 
as  long  as  the  sun  and  moon,  and  perish  only  in 
the  general  wreck  of  nature.  .  .  .  There  is  no 
other  method  of  fixing  those  thoughts  which  arise 
and  disappear  in  the  mind  of  man,  and  transmitting 
them  to  the  last  periods  of  time  ;  no  other  method 
of  giving  a  permanency  to  our  ideas  and  preserving 
the  knowledge  of  any  particular  period,  when  his 
body  shall  for  ages  have  been  mixed  with  the 
common  mass  of  matter  and  his  soul  retired  into 
the  world  of  spirits. 

Books  are  the  legacies  that  a  great  genius  leaves 
to  mankind,  which  are  delivered  down  from  gen- 
eration to  generation,  as  presents  to  the  posterity 
of  those  who  are  yet  unborn .  Knowledge  of  books 
in  a  man  of  business  is  a  torch  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  is  willing  and  able  to  show  those  who  are 
bewildered  the  way  which  leads  to  prosperity  and 

JOSEPH  ADDISON,  "The  Spectator." 


49 
PICA  EXPANDED.     TREBLE  LEADED.     27  LINES,  121  WORDS. 


delightful 
reading  I  found 
in  the  literature 

1  of   those    times  ! 

There  was  110  "Philadelphia  Led- 
ger/9 font  v^e  regaled  onrselves 
with  Joseph  R.  Chandler's  "Let- 
ters from  my  Armchair9'  in  the 
"United  States  Gazette/9  There 
was  no  "New -York  Trifonne/5 
font  we  foecame  inspired  foy  the 
splendid  typography  and  ner- 
vons  Saxon  of  Horace  Q-reeley9s 
"Weekly  New-Yorker/9  There 
was  no  'Atlantic99  or  "  Harper9  s,93 
font  we  revelled  in  the  pages  of 
^W^aldie9s  Library.  ^W^e  had  no 
Macanlay  or  Bancroft,  font  v^e 
had  Hinton  and  Hildreth.  ^Wo 
had  no  Dickens,  or  Thackeray, 
or  Charles  Reade,  or  "Wilkie  Col- 
lins, or  Oliver  "W^endell  Holmes, 
or  Alfred  Tennyson,  font  v^e 
lived  in  the  gorgeons  v^orld  of 
TV^alter  Scott,  made  mnsical 
with  the  enchanting  melodies  of 
Thomas  Moore. 

JOHN  W.  FORNEY. 


50 
PICA  No.  20.     DOUBLE  LEADED.    31  LINES,  301  WORDS. 


OW  paradoxical  a  character  a  man  may  become, 
is  described  in  the  autobiography  of  Solom 
Maimon,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  and 
sharpest  casuists  of  the  Hebrew  race.  He  was, 
according  to  a  reviewer  of  the  work,  a  "  skeptical  rabbi,  a 
great  Talmudist  who  despised  the  Talmud,  an  omnivorous 
reader  of  all  such  science  as  in  the  last  century  a  Polish  Jew 
could  get  hold  of,  a  genuine  idler  in  literature,  who,  although 
he  could  dash  off  a  considerable  spell  of  work  in  a  short  time, 
had  no  work  in  him,  had  no  method  in  him,  and  always  pre- 
ferred slipshod  effort  to  steady  industry  ;  a  man  whom  want 
and  misery  had  reduced  into  spasmodic  fits  of  intemperance, 
which  rather  grew  upon  him  toward  the  end."  With  all  this 
he  spent  a  half  year  of  his  life  as  a  regular  professional  beg- 
gar— adopting  apparently  all  the  habits  and  feelings  of  a 
beggar.  "None  the  less  he  was  a  man  of  remarkable  ac- 
quirements, being  a  learned  Talmudist,  for  those  times  at 
least  a  considerable  mathematician,  and  having  in  middle  life 
mastered  Latin,  German,  French,  and  English,  besides  the 
various  Eastern  dialects  of  which  his  Hebrew  knowledge 
was  the  foundation.  He  had  evidently  a  very  great  turn  for 
physics  as  well  as  for  mathematics,  and  a  wonderful  capacity 
for  the  acquisition  of  languages  without  the  slightest  com- 
munication with  those  who  could  speak  them,  so  that  he  knew 
a  language  fairly  well  of  which  he  could  not  properly  pro- 
nounce a  single  sentence."  He  so  criticized  Kant's  greatest 
work  as  to  excite  the  admiration  of  the  author.  In  charac- 
ter "he  was  candid,  grateful,  generous,  and  full  of  kindly 
feelings.  But  he  was  conceited,  irreverent,  passionate,  in- 
tolerant of  the  influence  of  others,  and  never  really  at  ease 
among  the  class  for  which  his  knowledge  fitted  him." 

POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY. 


PICA  No.  ii.     DOUBLE  LEADED.    31  LINES,  297  WORDS. 


RjHALL  I  tell  you  what,  reader?  But  first  I 
should  call  you  gentle,  courteous,  and  wise ; 
but  'tis  no  matter,  they're  but  foolish  words 
of  course,  and  better  left  out  than  printed : 
for  if  you  be  so,  you  need  not  be  called  so ;  and  if  you 
be  not  so,  then  were  lawe  against  me  for  calling  you 
out  of  your  names.  By  John  of  Powles  churchyard  I 
sweare,  and  that  oath  will  be  taken  at  any  haberdasher's, 
I  never  wisht  this  booke  a  better  fortune  than  to  fall 
into  the  hands  of  a  true  spelling  printer,  and  an  honest 
stitching  bookseller ;  and  if  honestie  could  be  soulde  by 
the  bushell,  like  oysters,  I  had  rather  have  one  bushell 
of  honestie  than  three  of  monie. 

Why  I  call  these  Father  HubbarcFs  Tales,  is  not  to 
have  them  called  in  againe  as  the  tales  of  Mother  Hub- 
lard;  the  worlde  would  shewe  little  judgment  in  that 
yfaith,  and  I  should  say  then  plena  stultorum  omnia. 
For  I  entreat  here  neither  of  rugged  beares  nor  apes ; 
no,  nor  the  lamentable  downefal  of  the  olde  wives'  plat- 
ters ;  I  deale  with  no  such  mettall.  What  is  mirth  in 
mee  is  harmlesse  as  the  Quarter  Jack  in  Powles,  they 
are  up  with  their  elbowes  foure  times  an  houre,  and  yet 
misuse  no  creature  living.  The  verie  bitterest  in  mee 
is  but  a  physical  frost,  that  nips  the  wicked  blood  a 
little,  and  so  makes  the  whole  bodie  the  more  whole- 
somer.  Then  to  condemn  these  tales  following,  because 
Father  Hubbard  tells  them  in  the  small  syze  of  an  ant, 
is  even  as  much  as,  if  these  two  wordes  God  and  Devil 
were  printed  both  in  one  line,  to  skip  it  over,  and  say 
that  line  were  naught,  because  the  Devil  were  in  it; 
Sat  Sapienti. 


EXTRACT  FROM  PREFACE. 


52 

SMALL  PICA  No.  20.     SOLID.    46  LINES,  512  WORDS. 


[HERE  are  thousands  of  mole-eyed  people  who  count 
all  passion  in  print  a  lie, —  people  who  will  go  into  a 
rage  at  trifles,  and  weep  in  the  dark,  and  love  in  secret, 
and  hope  without  mention,  and  cover  it  all  under  the 
cloak  of  what  they  call  —  propriety.  I  can  see  before 
me  now  some  gray-haired  old  gentleman,  very  money-getting,  very 
correct,  very  cleanly,  who  reads  the  morning  paper  with  unction, 
and  his  Bible  with  determination, —  who  listens  to  dull  sermons  with 
patience,  and  who  prays  with  quiet  self-applause ;  and  yet  there 
are  moments  belonging  to  his  life  when  his  curdled  affections  yearn 
for  something  that  they  have  not, — when  his  avarice  oversteps  all 
the  commandments, — when  his  .pride  builds  castles  full  of  splendor; 
and  yet  put  this  before  his  eye,  and  he  reads  with  the  most  careless 
air  in  the  world,  and  condemns  as  arrant  fiction  what  cannot  be 
proven  to  the  elders.  .  .  .  The  trouble  has  been,  that  those 
who  have  believed  one  passage  have  discredited  another ;  and  those 
who  have  sympathized  with  me  in  trifles  have  deserted  me  when 
affairs  grew  earnest.  .  .  . 

I  have  only  one  thing  more  to  say  before  I  get  upon  my  story. 
A  great  many  sharp-eyed  people,  who  have  a  horror  of  light  read- 
ing,— by  which  they  mean  whatever  does  not  make  mention  of 
stocks,  cottons,  or  moral  homilies, —  will  find  much  fault  with  my 
book  for  its  ephemeral  character.  I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  gratify 
such :  homilies  are  not  at  all  in  my  habit ;  and  it  does  seem  to  me 
an  exhausting  way  of  disposing  of  a  good  moral,  to  hammer  it  down 
to  a  single  point,  so  that  there  shall  be  only  one  chance  of  driving 
it  home.  For  my  own  part,  I  count  it  a  great  deal  better  philoso- 
phy to  fuse  it,  and  rarefy  it,  so  that  it  shall  spread  out  into  every 
crevice  of  a  story,  and  give  a  color  and  a  taste,  as  it  were,  to  the 
whole  mass. 

I  know  there  are  very  good  people,  who,  if  they  cannot  lay  their 
finger  on  so  much  doctrine  set  down  in  old-fashioned  phrase,  will 
never  get  an  inkling  of  it  at  all.  With  such  people,  goodness  is  a 
thing  of  understanding  more  than  of  feeling,  and  all  their  morality 
has  its  action  in  the  brain.  God  forbid  that  I  should  sneer  at  this 
terrible  infirmity  which  Providence  has  seen  fit  to  inflict;  God 
forbid,  too,  that  I  should  not  be  grateful  to  the  same  kind  Provi- 
dence for  bestowing  upon  others  among  his  creatures  a  more  genial 
apprehension  of  true  goodness,  and  a  hearty  sympathy  with  every 
shade  of  human  kindness. 

But  in  all  this  I  am  not  making  out  a  case  for  my  own  correct 
teaching,  or  insinuating  the  propriety  of  my  tone.  I  shall  leave 
the  book,  in  this  regard,  to  speak  for  itself;  and  whoever  feels 
himself  growing  worse  for  the  reading,  I  advise  him  to  lay  it  down. 
It  will  be  very  harmless  on  the  shelf,  however  it  may  be  in  the 
hand. 

IK  MARVEL,  Preface  to  "Dream-Life." 


53 

SMAIJ.PICANO.II.     SOLID.    46  LINKS,  485  WORDS. 




^-Y;'        I  HERE  is  no  treasure  in  this  life  like  a  love  for 
\    I  books,  for  they  are  safe  guides  in  youth  and  a 

1   H   /  solace  in  age.    A  book  is  your  best  companion 

*     *  at  all  times.    In  choosing  a  book,  as  in  choosing 

**-  a  dictionary,  we  ought  to  follow  the  advice  of  the 

1  advertisements  and  Get  the  Best.  In  literature  as 
in  life  we  should  keep  the  best  company  we  can.  Life  is  short 
and  libraries  are  big ;  and  precious  time  is  lost  in  reading  fee- 
ble writing  which  unfits  us  for  stronger  food.  Emerson's  three 
rules  for  reading  were :  1.  Never  read  any  book  that  is  not  a 
year  old.  2.  Never  read  any  but  famed  books.  3.  Never  read 
any  books  but  what  you  like.  That  these  were  sound  rules  for 
Emerson  himself  we  need  not  doubt,  but  they  are  a  little  too 
rigid  and  restricting  for  most  of  us.  Mr.  F.  B.  Perkins,  in  his 
interesting  notes  on  "  Courses  of  Reading,"  suggests  that  Emer- 
son's rules  would  be  perfect  if  to  each  were  added  the  clause, 
"  unless  you  choose."  The  advice  of  Goethe  is  the  advice  of 
Emerson.  "Do  not  read  your  fellow-strivers,  your  fellow- 
workers,"  said  Goethe.  And  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  adds,  "  Of 
the  contemporary  rubbish  which  is  shot  so  plentifully  around 
us,  we  can,  indeed,  hardly  read  too  little."  This  is  a  hard  say- 
ing for  the  man  or  woman  who  seeks  in  books  temporary  rest 
and  relief  after  the  toil  and  harass  and  stress  of  daily  life. 
Most  of  us  have  not  the  high  and  cultivated  taste  which  finds 
more  enjoyment  in  Homer,  or  Dante,  or  Milton,  than  in  a  light 
and  lively  tale  of  to-day.  And  for  most  of  us,  therefore,  the 
advice  of  Goethe,  Emerson,  and  Mr.  Arnold  is  too  severe,  and 
must  be  broadened  and  brightened.  Yet  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  they  are  right  in  the  main,  and  that  the  nearer  we  come 
to  the  attainment  of  this  ideal,  the  better  it  will  be  for  us. 
The  man  who  has  grasped  the  inner  beauty  of  the  Greek  and 
Roman  classics  has  laid  hold  of  a  noble  thing,  for  they  are 
among  the  best  that  has  been  thought  and  said  in  the  world. 
There  are  many  classics — Greek  and  Latin,  Italian  and  French, 
English  and  American.  "Robinson  Crusoe"  is  as  genuine  a 
classic  as  "Paradise  Lost."  Homer,  Dante,  and  Goethe  are 
classics  truly,  but  they  are  not  more  truly  classic  than  Ben- 
jamin Franklin,  Walter  Scott,  or  Henry  Wads  worth  Long- 
fellow. "A  classic,"  says  Lowell,  "is  properly  a  book  which 
maintains  itself  by  virtue  of  that  happy  coalescence  of  matter 
and  style,  that  innate  and  exquisite  sympathy  between  the 
thought  that  gives  life  and  the  form  which  consents  to  every 
mood  of  grace  and  dignity,  which  can  be  simple  without  being 
vulgar,  elevated  without  being  distant,  and  which  is  some- 
thing neither  ancient  nor  modern,  always  new,  arid  incapable 
of  growing  old." 

THE  HOME  LIBRARY. 


54 
SMALL  PICA  No.  20.     LEADED.    39  LINES,  385  WORDS. 


ROPOSALS  for  the  Printing  of  a  large  Bible,  by  William 
Bradford,  January  14,  1688.  These  are  to  give  Notice, 
that  it  is  proposed  for  a  large  house- Bible  to  be  Printed 
by  way  of  Subscriptions  [a  method  usual  in  England  for 
the  printing  of  large  Volumns,  because  Printing  is  very  chargeable]. 
Therefore  to  all  that  are  willing  to  forward  so  good  a  Work,  as  the 
Printing  of  the  holy  Bible,  are  offered  these  Proposals,  viz.  : 

1.  That  it  shall  be  printed  in  a  fair  Character,  on  good  Paper,  and 
well  bound. 

2.  That  it  shall  contain  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  with  the 
Apocraphy,  and  all  to  have  useful  Marginal  Notes. 

3.  That  it  shall  be  allowed  (to  them  that  subscribe)  for  Twenty 
Shillings  per  Bible :   [A  Price  which  one  of  the  same  volumns  in 
England  would  cost.] 

4.  That  the  pay  shall  be  half  Silver  Money,  and  half  Country 
Produce  at  Money  price.     One  half  down  now,  and  the  other  half 
on  the  delivery  of  the  Bibles. 

5.  That  those  who  do  subscribe  for  six,  shall  have  the  seventh 
gratis,  and  have  them  delivered  one  month  before  any  above  that 
number  shall  be  sold  to  others. 

6.  To  those  which  do  not  subscribe,  the  said  Bibles  will  not  be 
allowed  under  26  s.  a  piece. 

7.  Those  who   are   minded  to  have  the   Common-Prayer,  shall 
have  the  whole  bound  up  for  22  s.,  and  those  that  do  not  subscribe 
28  s.  and  6  d.  per  Book. 

8.  That  as  encouragement  is  given  by  Peoples  subscribing  and 
paying  down  one  half,  the  said  Work  will  be  put  forward  with  what 
Expedition  may  be. 

9.  That  the  Subscribers  may  enter  their  Subscriptions  and  time 
of  Payment,   at  Pheneas   Pemberton's   and   Robert   Hall's   in   the 
County  of  Bucks.     At  Malen  Stacy's  Mill  at  the  Falls.     At  Thomas 
Budd's  House  in  Burlington.     At  John  Hasting's  in  the  County  of 
Chester.     At  Edward  Blake's  in  New- Castle.     At  Thomas  Vvood- 
rooff's    in    Salem.     And    at  William    Bradford's    in    Philadelphia, 
Printer  and  Undertaker  of  the  said  Work.     At  which  places  the 
Subscribers  shall  have  a  Receipt  for  so  much  of  their  Subscriptions 
as  paid  and  an  obligation  for  the  delivery  of  the  number  of  Bibles 
(so  Printed  and  Bound  as  aforesaid)  as  the  respective  Subscribers 
shall  deposit  one  half  for. 

HUDSON'S  JOURNALISM. 


55 
SMALL  PICA  No.  n.     LEADED.    39  LINES,  438  WORDS. 


T  is  not  easy  to  advise  exactly  as  to  the  best  way 
of  buying  books,  since  so  much  depends  on  cir- 
cumstance and  situation.  In  general,  it  is  best 
to  make  a  friend  of  the  most  active  and  intelligent 
bookseller  within  reach.  Decide  on  the  sum  you 
can  afford  to  spend  this  year.  Make  out  a  list  of  the  books 
you  want.  Take  this  to  the  bookseller  and  ask  him  to  get  you 
the  books,  and  to  allow  you  a  fair  discount  proportionate  to 
the  size  of  the  order.  After  these  books  have  come,  keep  on 
good  terms  with  the  bookseller.  Form  the  habit  of  dropping 
into  his  store  now  and  again  to  see  what  he  has  likely  to  suit 
you.  Lay  aside  a  fixed  sum  annually  to  be  spent  in  books. 
Consult  with  the  bookseller  as  to  the  best  means  of  laying  this 
out  to  advantage.  Remember  that  in  general  it  is  best  to  deal 
directly  and  regularly  with  an  established  bookseller.  Beware 
of  the  itinerant  book-peddler ;  most  of  his  books  are  made  to 
sell,  and  are  not  worth  reading.  Beware  of  the  canvassing 
agent,  unless  he  represents  a  reputable  house.  Never  buy  at 
auction  unless  you  have  had  an  opportunity  previously  to  ex- 
amine the  goods  to  see  that  they  have  no  defects,  and  are  in 
every  way  in  good  condition.  Remember  that  the  highest- 
priced  books  are  not  necessarily  the  best,  or  the  lowest-priced 
necessarily  the  cheapest.  Choose  good  type,  and  good  paper, 
and  good  ink,  even  if  they  cost  a  little  more ;  it  is  false  to 
spare  the  pocket  and  spoil  the  eyes.  A  book  that  is  worth 
buying  at  all  is  worth  buying  in  good  condition  and  in  a  good 
edition.  When  in  doubt  between  two  editions  of  the  same 
standard  book,  choose  that  which  has  the  fullest  index.  In 
buying  second-hand  books — and  many,  if  not  most,  standard 
works  can  best  be  had  second-hand  from  a  dealer  in  old  books 
^— it  costs  but  little  more  to  get  a  copy  well  bound  in  morocco, 
in  half  roan,  or  even  in  half  calf.  A  second-hand  book  sells 
on  its  own  merits  independent  of  its  binding,  and  by  biding 
your  time  and  looking  about  you  can  generally  pick  up  a 
neatly  bound  copy  for  the  price  you  would  pay  for  a  copy  in 
cloth  or  in  boards ;  and  even  if  it  is  second-hand,  there  is  twice 
the  satisfaction  to  be  got  out  of  a  book  you  own  than  is  to  be 
got  out  of  a  book  only  borrowed.  Own  all  the  books  you  can, 
and  use  all  the  books  you  own. 


THE  HOME  LIBRARY. 


56 

SMALL  PICA  No.  20.     DOUBLE  LEADED.     33  LINES,  368  WORDS. 


|j^»f»»] 
|jN  Books  we  find  the  dead  as  it  were  living;  in  Books 
\  ^l  Jyi^HPf 
1  we   foresee   things  to  come  ;    in  Books  warlike   affairs 

are  methodized ;  the  rights  of  peace  proceed  from 
Books.  All  things  are  corrupted  and  decay  with  time. 
Saturn  never  ceases  to  devour  those  whom  he  generates  ;  insomuch 
that  the  glory  of  the  world  would  be  lost  in  oblivion  if  God  had 
not  provided  mortals  with  a  remedy  in  Books.  Alexander,  the 
ruler  of  the  world ;  Julius,  the  invader  of  the  world  and  of  the  city, 
the  first  who  in  unity  of  person  assumed  the  empire  in  arms  and 
arts  ;  the  faithful  Fabricius,  the  rigid  Cato,  would  at  this  day  have 
been  without  a  memorial  if  the  assistance  of  Books  had  failed  them. 
Towers  are  razed  to  the  earth,  cities  overthrown,  triumphal  arches 
mouldered  to  dust ;  nor  can  the  king  or  Pope  be  found  upon  whom 
the  privilege  of  a  lasting  name  can  be  conferred  more  easily  than 
by  Books.  A  Book  made,  renders  succession  to  the  author :  for 
as  long  as  the  book  exists  the  author  cannot  perish.  The  Truth 
written  in  a  book,  being  not  fluctuating,  but  permanent,  shows 
itself  openly  to  the  sight,  passing  through  the  spiritual  ways  of 
the  eyes,  as  the  porches  and  halls  of  common  sense  and  imagina- 
tion ;  it  enters  the  chamber  of  intellect,  reposes  itself  on  the  couch 
of  memory,  and  there  congenerates  the  eternal  Truth  of  the  mind. 
Consider  how  great  a  commodity  of  doctrine  exists  in  Books,  how 
easily,  how  secretly,  how  safely  they  expose  the  nakedness  of  human 
ignorance  without  putting  it  to  shame.  These  are  the  masters  who 
instruct  us  without  rods  and  ferules,  without  hard  words  and  anger, 
without  clothes  or  money.  If  you  approach  them,  they  are  not 
asleep ;  if  investigating  you  interrogate  them,  they  conceal  noth- 
ing; if  you  mistake  them,  they  never  grumble  ;  if  you  are  ignorant, 
they  cannot  laugh  at  you.  You  only,  O  Books,  are  liberal  and  in- 
dependent. You  give  to  all  who  ask,  and  enfranchise  all  who  serve 
you  assiduously.  You  are  golden  urns  in  which  manna  is  laid  up, 
rocks  flowing  with  honey,  or  rather  indeed  honey-combs;  udders 
most  copiously  yielding  the  milk  of  life  ;  store-rooms  ever  full. 

RICHARD  DE  BURY,  Bishop  of  Durham. 


57 
SMALL  PICA  No.  11.     DOUBLE  LEADED.    33  LINES,  350  WORDS. 


Commerce  of  Books  comforts  me  in  my  age 
I!  and  solitude :  it  eases  me  of  a  troublesome  weight 
"'  of  idleness,  and  delivers  me  at  all  hours  from 


company  that  I  dislike ;  and  it  blunts  the  point 
of  griefs,  if  they  are  not  extreme,  and  have  not  got  an  entire 
possession  of  my  soul.  To  divert  myself  from  a  troublesome 
fancy,  'tis  but  to  run  to  my  Books ;  they  presently  fix  me  to 
them,  and  drive  the  other  out  of  my  thoughts ;  and  do  not 
mutiny  to  see  that  I  have  only  recourse  to  them  for  want  of 
other  more  real,  natural,  and  lively  conveniences ;  they  always 
receive  me  with  the  same  kindness.  I  never  travel  without 
Books,  either  in  peace  or  war ;  and  yet  sometimes  I  pass  over 
several  days,  and  sometimes  months,  without  looking  into 
them.  I  will  read  by  and  by,  say  I  to  myself,  or  to-morrow, 
or  when  I  please,  and  time  steals  away  without  any  incon- 
venience. I  rest  content  in  this  consideration,  that  I  have 
them  by  me,  to  divert  myself  with  them  when  I  am  so  dis- 
posed, and  to  call  to  mind  what  an  ease  and  assistance  they 
are  to  my  life.  They  will  not  flee  from  me.  I  may -neglect 
them,  but  they  do  not  turn  away.  I  forget  their  teachings, 
and  they  inform  me  again.  Patient  and  faithful  servants  of 
a  fickle  master!  whose  changing  moods  are  but  occasions 
for  proving  anew  your  unvarying  friendship.  Your  affec- 
tions, are  sure  and  lasting.  Books  have  very  many  charm- 
ing qualities  to  such  as  know  how  to  choose  them.  But 
every  good  has  its  ill;  'tis  a  pleasure  that  is  not  pure  and 
clean,  no  more  than  others :  it  has  its  inconveniences,  and 
great  ones  too.  The  mind  indeed  is  exercised  by  it,  but  the 
body,  the  care  of  which  I  must  withal  never  neglect,  remains 
in  the  mean  time  without  action,  and  grows  heavy  and  mel- 
ancholy. I  know  no  excess  more  prejudicial  to  me,  nor  more 
to  be  avoided  in  this  my  declining  age,  than  the  nourishment 
of  the  mind  at  the  body's  expense. 

MICHAEL  DE  MONTAIGNE. 


58 

LONG  PRIMER  No.  20.     SOLID.     51  LINES,  610  WORDS. 


HE  manufacture  of  paper  of  any  description  was  not  established 
in  any  of  the  colonies  until  full  fifty  years  after  the  introduction 
of  printing,  the  first  paper  mill  having  been  erected  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  Philadelphia  by  one  William  Rittenhousen,  a  native  of 
Germany,  about  the  year  1690.  The  first  paper  mill  in  New 
England  was  established  in  the  town  of  Milton,  near  Boston,  in  1730.  In 
1732  the  following  advertisement  appeared  in  the  "Rehearsal,"  of  Boston: 

"  Richard  Fry,  Stationer,  Bookseller,  Paper-maker,  and  Rag  Merchant, 
from  the  city  of  London,  keeps  at  Mr.  Thomas  Fleet's,  printer,  at  the  Heart 
and  Crown,  in  Cornhill,  Boston,  where  said  Fry  is  ready  to  accommodate 
all  Gentlemen,  Merchants  and  Tradesmen  with  setts  of  Account  books  after 
the  most  acute  manner  for  twenty  per  cent,  cheaper  than  they  can  have  them 
from  London.  I  return  the  Public  Thanks  for  following  the  Directions  of 
my  former  Advertisement  for  gather-ing  rags,  and  hope  they  will  continue  the 
like  Method,  having  received  upward  of  Seven  thousand  weight  already." 

The  early  scarcity  of  paper  in  the  colonies  is  illustrated  by  the  following 
curious  advertisement,  which  appeared  in  the  Boston  "Post"  in  1748: 

"  Choice  Pennsylvania  Tobacco  paper  is  to  be  sold  by  the  publisher  of 
this  paper  at  the  Heart  and  Crown,  where  may  be  also  had  the  Bulls  or 
Indulgencies  of  the  present  Pope,  Urban  VIII. ,  either  by  the  single  Bull, 
Quire  or  Ream,  at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  they  can  be  purchased  of  the 
French  or  Spanish  priests." 

The  explanation  of  this  was  that  several  bales  of  "  indulgencies,"  printed 
upon  very  good  paper  and  only  on  one  side,  had  been  captured  by  an  English 
cruiser  from  a  Spanish  vessel,  and  being  offered  at  a  very  low  price,  had  been 
purchased  by  the  Boston  printer,  who  saw  an  opportunity  for  profit  by  print- 
ing ballads  or  other  matter  for  his  customers  upon  the  backs  of  the  pontifical 
documents  in  question.  It  is  also  to  be  noted  that  about  this  time  Robert 
Saltonstall  was  fined  five  shillings  by  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts 
for  presenting  a  petition  on  a  small  and  bad  piece  of  paper. 

In  1768  Colonel  Christopher  Leffingwell  erected  at  Norwich  the  first  paper 
mill  in  the  colony  of  Connecticut,  under  the  promise  of  a  bounty  from  the 
General  Assembly.  Two  years  after  he  was  accordingly  awarded  two-pence 
a  quire  on  4020  quires  of  writing  paper,  and  one  penny  each  on  10,600 
quires  of  printing  paper.  This  mill  attained  a  high  degree  of  success. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  Bunkers,  who  settled  in  Lancaster  county,  very  early 
gave  their  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  paper,  and  also  set  up  a  printing 
press.  During  the  Revolution,  and  just  previous  to  the  battle  of  the  Brandy- 
wine,  messengers  were  sent  to  their  mill  for  a  supply  of  paper  for  cartridges. 
The  mill  happening  to  be  out  of  unmanufactured  paper,  the  fraternity,  who 
held  their  property  in  common,  sent  back  to  the  Continental  army  as  a  sub- 
stitute several  wagon  loads  of  an  edition  of  Fox's  "Book  of  Martyrs,"  and 
from  the  paper  .supplied  by  the  pages  of  this  work  cartridges  used  in  the 
battle  were  in  part  manufactured. 

About  the  year  1770  the  number  of  paper  mills  in  the  provinces  of  Penn- 
sylvania, New  Jersey  and  Delaware  was  reported  to  be  forty,  this  department 
of  manufacturing  industry  having  especially  developed  in  the  vicinity  of  Phila- 
delphia, which  was  at  that  time  the  center  of  literary  activity  for  the  colonies. 
It  was  a  business,  moreover,  in  which  Dr.  Franklin  was  greatly  interested ; 
and  he  told  De  Warville,  a  French  traveller  who  visited  America  in  1788, 
that  he  had  himself  established  as  many  as  eighteen  mills. 

HARPER'S  MAGAZINE. 


59 


LONG  PRIMER  No.  n.     SOLID.     51  LINES,  431  WORDS. 


HE  modern  subscription  book  has 
curiously  shown  the  revival  of  an- 
cient custom  in  the  matter  of  title- 
pages.  The  plausible  book  agent 
who,  at  the  proper  point,  opens  his 
book  at  the  title,  smooths  it  down 
with  his  broad  hand  and  proceeds 
to  read  it,  underscoring  the  lines 
with  his  fore-finger,  knows  well 
the  virtue  of  a  full,  descriptive,  and 
eloquent  title.  To  be  sure  he  has 
committed  it  to  memory,  the  bet- 
ter to  aid  his  tongue,  but  he  allows 
his  customer  to  enjoy  with  him 
the  unctuous  feast  which  the  title 
by  foretaste  gives.  His  eye,  his 


finger,  and  his  tongue  travel  slowly  and  with  due  emphasis  down  the 
meandering  stream,  and  the  book  must  be  a  meager  one  indeed  that 
cannot  thus  spread  its  tempting  bill  of  fare  before  the  reader.  Com- 
pare with  such  a  title-page  any  one  of  the  ordinary  title-pages  of 
modern  fashion,  and  how  reserved  is  the  latter.  (t  Verses/'  it  may  be, 
at  the  head  of  the  page,  "A.  B."  in  the  middle,  and  the  publisher's 
modest  imprint  at  the  foot. 

The  printer  who  has  an  eve  for  typographic  display,  if  a  true  master 
of  his  art,  does  not  take  refuge  in  fantastically  cut  type,  or  seek  vari- 
ety by  the  use  of  many  kinds  of  letter,  but  depends  for  the  effect  he 
is  to  produce  upon  the  proportions  of  his  page  and  the  proper  break- 
ing up  of  his  lines.  He  likes,  moreover,  to  study  the  color  of  his  page, 
and  selects  his  type  with  reference  to  its  harmony  of  tone  and  the 
gentle  emphasis  which  may  now  and  then  be  attained  by  a  bolder  face. 
Especially  he  is  glad  if  it  warrants  the  use  of  a  line  of  rich  Caxton 
type,  shining,  so  to  speak,  like  a  black  diamond,  lighting  the  page. 

The  basis  of  a  good  title-page  is  no  doubt  in  the  selection  of  type 
and  the  adjustment  of  lines,  but  upon  this  groundwork  may  be  built 
very  beautiful  and  ornate  effects.  The  use  of  red  ink  is  one  of  the 
most  common  and  effective  appliances,  and  where  the  ink  is  a  brilliant 
carmine  there  is  a  boldness  and  beauty  which  captivate  the  eye,  if  only 
it  is  properly  used.  It  is  not  enough  that  two  red  lines  should  avoid 
proximity ;  it  is  important  that  the  type  used  for  taking  the  red  should 
give  a  clear,  full  impression.  A  choice  means  of  securing  pleasing 
effect  is  in  the  use  of  a  vignette,  coat  of  arms,  or  monogram.  Of  these 
three  the  vignette  allies  the  page  most  closely  to  decorative  art,  and  is 
unquestionably  the  most  attractive.  It  may  be  said  that  with  rare  ex- 
ceptions a  confined  vignette  is  better  on  a  title-page  than  a  free  one. 
The  use  of  type  above  and  below  necessarily  gives  the  page  a  geomet- 
rical form,  and  the  introduction  of  a  flowing  design  in  the  center  is  apt 
to  destroy  the  harmony.  A  head-piece  has  sometimes  been  well  used, 
especially  when  the  lines  beneath  form  a  pendant  to  it,  and  some  of 
Whittingham's  books,  which  are  notable  for  the  beauty  of  their  title- 
pages,  show  a  deep  arabesque  border  inclosing  the  entire  page,  which 
is  very  suitable  to  books  whose  general  characteristic  is  quaintness. 


N.  Y.  TRIBUNE. 


6o 
LONG  PRIMER  No.  20.     LEADED.     42  LINES,  520  WORDS. 


T  the  head  of  all  the  pleasures  which  offer  themselves  to  the 
man  of  liberal  education  may  confidently  be  placed  that  de- 
rived from  books.  In  variety,  durability,  and  facility  of 
attainment  no  other  can  stand  in  competition  with  it,  and 
even  in  intensity  it  is  inferior  to  few.  Imagine  that  we  had 
it  in  our  power  to  call  up  the  shades  of  the  greatest  and 
wisest  men  that  ever  existed,  and  oblige  them  to  converse  with  us  on  the 
most  interesting  topics — what  an  inestimable  privilege  should  we  think 
.it! — how  superior  to  all  common  enjoyments!  But  in  a  well  furnished 
library  we  in  fact  possess  this  power.  We  can  question  Xenophon  and  Caesar 
on  their  campaigns,  make  Demosthenes  and  Cicero  plead  before  us,  join  in 
the  audiences  of  Socrates  and  Plato,  and  receive  demonstrations  from  Euclid 
and  Newton.  In  books  we  have  the  choicest  thoughts  of  the  ablest  men  in 
their  best  dress.  We  can  at  pleasure  exclude  dullness  and  impertinence, 
and  open  our  doors  to  wit  and  good  sense  alone.  It  is  needless  to  repeat 
the  high  commendations  that  have  been  bestowed  on  the  study  of  letters  by 
persons  who  had  free  access  to  every  other  source  of  gratification.  Instead 
of  quoting  Cicero  to  you,  I  shall  in  plain  terms  give  you  the  result  of  my 
own  experience  on  this  subject.  If  domestic  enjoyments  have  contributed 
in  the  first  degree  to  the  happiness  of  my  life  (and  I  should  be  ungrateful 
not  to  acknowledge  that  they  have),  the  pleasures  of  reading  have  beyond 
all  question  held  the  second  place.  Without  books  I  have  never  been  able 
to  pass  a  single  day  to  my  entire  satisfaction :  with  them,  no  day  has  been 
so  dark  as  not  to  have  its  pleasure.  Even  pain  and  sickness  have  for  a  time 
been  charmed  away  by  them.  By  the  easy  provision  of  a  book  in  my  pocket, 
I  have  frequently  worn  through  long  nights  and  days  in  the  most  disagreeable 
parts  of  my  profession,  with  all  the  difference  in  my  feelings  between  calm 
content  and  fretful  impatience.  Reading  may  in  every  sense  be  called  a 
cheap  amusement.  A  taste  for  books,  indeed,  may  be  made  expensive 
enough  ;  but  'that  is  a  taste  for  editions,  bindings,  paper,  and  type.  If  you 
are  satisfied  with  getting  at  the  sense  of  an  author,  in  some  commodious  way, 
a  crown  at  a  stall  will  supply  your  wants  as  well  as  a  guinea  at  a  shop. 
Learn  to  distinguish  the  difference  between  using  books  and  owning  books. 
Socrates  once  administered  a  sarcastic  rebuke  to  a  young  man  who  was 
ambitious  to  be  considered  deeply  learned,  and  thought  to  gain  that  end  by 
boasting  of  his  extensive  and  valuable  collection  of  manuscripts.  "Have 
you  read  them?"  asked  he. 

No  apparatus,  no  appointment  of  time  and  place,  is  necessary  for  the  en- 
joyment of  reading.  From  the  midst  of  bustle  and  business  you  may,  in  an 
instant,  by  the  magic  of  a  book,  plunge  into  scenes  of  remote  ages  and  coun- 
tries, and  disengage  yourself  from  present  care  and  fatigue.  Happy  the 
man  who  has  found  in  books  a  peaceful  retreat. 

DR.  JOHN  AIKIN. 


61 

LONG  PRIMER  No.  u.     LEADED.    42  LINES,  500  WORDS. 


F  all  the  amusements  which  can  possibly  be  imagined  for  a 
hard  working  man,  after  his  daily  toil,  or  in  its  intervals, 
there  is  nothing  like  reading  an  entertaining  book,  sup- 
posing him  to  have  a  taste  for  it  and  supposing  him  to 
have  the  book  to  read.  It  calls  for  no  bodily  exertion,  of  which  he 
has  had  enough  or  too  much.  It  relieves  his  home  of  its  dullness 
and  sameness,  which,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  is  what  drives  him  out 
to  the  ale-house,  to  his  own  ruin  and  his  family's.  It  transports  him 
to  a  livelier,  and  gayer,  and  more  diversified  and  interesting  scene, 
and  while  he  enjoys  himself  there  he  forgets  the  evils  of  the  present 
moment.  Nay,  it  accompanies  him  to  his  next  day's  work,  and  if  the 
book  he  has  been  reading  be  anything  above  the  very  idlest  and  light- 
est, it  gives  him  something  to  think  of  besides  the  mere  mechanical 
drudgery  of  his  e very-day  occupation — something  he  can  enjoy  while 
absent,  and  look  forward  with  pleasure  to  return  to. 

If  I  were  to  pray  for  a  taste  which  should  stand  me  in  stead  under 
every  variety  of  circumstances,  and  be  a  source  of  happiness  and 
cheerfulness  to  me  through  life,  and  a  shield  against  its  ills,  however 
things  might  go  amiss,  and  the  world  frown  upon  me,  and  human 
friends  forsake  me,  it  would  be  a  taste  for  reading. 

I  recollect  an  anecdote  told  me  by  a  late  highly  respected  inhabitant 
of  Windsor  as  a  fact  to  which  he  could  personally  testify,  having  oc- 
curred in  a  village  where  he  resided  several  years,  and  where  he  act- 
ually was  at  the  time  it  took  place.  The  blacksmith  of  the  village  had 
got  hold  of  Richardson's  novel  of  "  Pamela,  or  Virtue  Rewarded,"  and 
used  to  read  it  aloud  in  the  long  summer  evenings,  seated  on  his  anvil, 
and  never  failed  to  have  a  large  and  attentive  audience.  It  is  a  pretty 
long-winded  book,  but  their  patience  was  fully  a  match  for  the  au- 
thor's prolixity,  and  they  fairly  listened  to  it  all.  At  length,  when  the 
happy  turn  of  fortune  arrived,  which  brings  the  hero  and  heroine 
together,  and  sets  them  living  long  and  happily  according  to  the  most 
approved  rules,  the  congregation  were  so  delighted  as  to  raise  a  great 
shout,  and  procuring  the  church  keys,  actually  set  the  parish  bells  ring- 
ing. Now  let  any  one  say  whether  it  is  easy  to  estimate  the  amount 
of  good  done  in  this  simple  case.  Not  to  speak  of  the  number  of 
hours  agreeably  and  innocently  spent,  not  to  speak  of  the  good- 
fellowship  and  harmony  promoted,  here  was  a  whole  rustic  popula- 
tion fairly  won  over  to  the  side  of  good — charmed,  and  night  after 
night  spell-bound  within  that  magic  circle  which  genius  can  trace  so 
effectually,  and  compelled  to  bow  before  that  image  of  virtue  and 
purity  which  (though  at  a  great  expense  of  words)  no  one  knew  better 
how  to  body  forth  than  the  author  of  that  commendable  work. 

SIR  JOHN  HERSCHEL. 


62 
LONG  PRIMER  No.  15.     LEADED.    43  LINES,  587  WORDS. 


HARLES  LAMB  writes  of  books  which  are  not  books.  In  the 
same  way  there  are  readers  who  are  not  readers  —  they  read 
with  the  eye  alone,  while  the  brain  is  inert.  This  is  a  class 
far  harder  to  deal  with  than  that  other  class  which  has  never 
made  any  use  of  the  power  of  reading  which  was  hammered  into  them  in  the 
primary  school.  The  man  who  has  rarely  opened  a  book  may  be  induced  to 
do  so ;  and  he  may  be  so  gratified  with  his  discovery  of  the  pleasure  and 
profit  which  he  finds  in  reading  that  he  will  never  give  it  up.  There  is  a 
well-known  story  of  a  man  who,  after  a  very  slight  schooling,  had  been 
obliged  to  earn  his  own  living;  he  was  possessed  of  the  combination  of  pow- 
ers which  make  for  success,  and  he  gained  a  large  fortune  in  California  before 
he  was  forty.  He  built  him  a  fine  house,  in  which  the  architect  put  a  "li- 
brary," so  the  owner  sent  a  five-thousand-dollar  check  East  to  a  bookseller 
for  books  to  fill  it.  The  books  went  to  California,  and  the  new  millionaire, 
having  now  time  on  his  hands,  took  to  reading.  A  few  months  later  he 
wrote  East  to  the  bookseller,  saying  that  the  books  he  had  sent  were  thor- 
oughly satisfactory,  especially  the  plays  of  a  man  called  Shakespeare.  He 
had  enjoyed  these  very  much.  They  were  the  real  thing,  and  if  this  Shake- 
speare should  ever  write  anything  more,  please  forward  it  to  him  at  once  by 
express,  C.  O.  D.  This  story,  which  I  have  seen  cited  as  characteristic 
stupidity  on  the  part  of  a  self-made  man,  strikes  me,  on  the  contrary,  as 
highly  to  his  credit.  That  he,  without  any  literary  culture  whatever,  should 
be  able  to  appreciate  Shakespeare's  work,  in  spite  of  the  archaisms  and  other 
things  which  tend  to  veil  its  beauty  and  its  strength  from  us,  is  as  |ood  proof 
of  his  native  intelligence  as  one  could  wish.  If  that  man  had  spent  his  spare 
time  reading  cheap  fiction,  in  all  probability  he  would  never  have  made  his 
fortune  ;  and  of  a  certainty  he  would  never  have  been  able  to  enjoy  Shake- 
speare if  his  appreciation  of  what  is  good  had  been  lowered  by  trash. 

Those  who  do  not  read  can  best  be  got  to  read  by  giving  them  something 
which  will  interest  them  sufficiently  to  make  them  want  to  read  it  through 
when  they  have  once  begun.  And  what  will  interest  a  man  depends  alto- 
gether on  the  man.  In  literature,  as  in  dietetics,  what  is  one  man's  meat 
is  another  man's  poison.  You  cannot  cure  a  boy  of  reading  "The  Bold 
Brigand  of  Dead  Gulch"  by  giving  him  "The  Student's  Hume" — one  of 
the  driest  books  which  ever  made  a  boy  thirsty — or  any  of  the  ordinary  old 
fashioned  text-books  of  history.  But  you  might  get  him  to  give  up  "Lone- 
eyed  Jim,  the  Boy  Scout,"  to  read  one  of  Mayne  Reid's  stories;  and  from 
those  the  transition  is  easy  to  the  sea-tales  of  Cooper  and  Marryat. 

The  one  essential  thing  to  do,  when  you  are  trying  to  change  a  man  who 
does  not  read  into  a  man  who  does  read,  is  to  put  yourself  in  his  place. 
What  is  his  business  ?  What  are  his  tastes  ?  What  are  his  surroundings  ? 
Study  the  man  or  the  woman  or  the  child,  and  put  before  him  or  her  the 
book  he  or  she  is  most  likely  to  begin,  and,  having  begun,  most  likely  to  finish. 

ARTHUR  PENN. 


63 
LONG  PRIMER   LIGHT  FACE.     LEADED.    43  LINES,  383  WORDS. 


T  last  Maggie's  eyes  glanced  down  on  the  books 
that  lay  on  the  window  shelf,  and  she  half 
forsook  her  reverie  to  turn  over  listlessly 
the  leaves  of  the  "Portrait  Gallery,"  but  she 
soon  pushed  this  aside  to  examine  the  little  row  of 
books  tied  together  with  string:  " Beauties  of  the 
Spectator,"  "Rasselas,"  "Economy  of  Human  Life," 
"Gregory's  Letters"— she  knew  the  sort  of  matter 
that  was  inside  all  these  ;  the  "Christian  Year"— that 
seemed  to  be  a  hymn-book,  and  she  laid  it  down 
again;  but  "Thomas  &  Kempis"? — the  name  had 
come  across  her  in  her  reading,  and  she  felt  the  sat- 
isfaction, which  every  one  knows,  of  getting  some 
ideas  .to  attach  to  a  name  that  strays  solitary  in  the 
memory.  She  took  up  the  little,  old,  clumsy  book 
with  some  curiosity:  it  had  the  corners  turned 
clown  in  many  places,  and  some  hand,  now  forever 
quiet,  had  made  at  certain  passages  strong  pen-and- 
ink  marks,  long  since  browned  by  time.  Maggie 
turned  from  leaf  to  leaf,  and  read  where  the  quiet 
hand  pointed:  "Know  that  the  love  of  thyself  doth 
hurt  thee  more  than  anything  in  the  world.  .  .  If 
thou  seekest  this  or  that,  and  wouldst  be  here  or 
there  to  enjoy  thy  own  will  and  pleasure,  thou 
shalt  never  be  quiet  nor  free  from  care:  for  in 
every  thing  somewhat  will  be  wanting,  and  in 
every  place  there  will  be  some  that  will  cross  thee.  .  . 
Both  above  and  below,  which  way  soever  thou  dost 
turn  thee,  every  where  thoLi  shalt  find  the  Cross: 
and  every  where  of  necessity  thou  must  have  pa- 
tience, if  thou  wilt  have  inward  peace,  and  enjoy 
an  everlasting  crown."  A  strange  thrill  of  awe  passed 
through  Maggie  while  she  read,  as  if  she  had  been 
awakened  in  the  night  by  a  strain  of  solemn  music, 
telling  of  beings  whose  souls  had  been  astir  while 
hers  was  in  stupor.  She  went  on  from  one  brown 
mark  to  another,  where  the  quiet  hand  seemed  to 
point,  hardly  conscious  that  she  -was  reading — seem- 
ing rather  to  listen  while  a  low  voice  said:  "I  have 
often  said  unto  thee,  and  now  again  I  say  the  same, 
Forsake  thyself,  resign  thyself,  and  thou  shalt  enjoy 
much  inward  peace.  Then  shall  immoderate  fear 
leave  thee,  and  inordinate  love  shall  die." 

GEORGE  ELIOT,  "  Mill  on  the  Floss." 


64 
ELZEVIR  BODY  10.     LEADED.    39  LINES,  383  WORDS. 


]HE  actual  interest  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's article  on  books  in  the 
"Nineteenth  Century"  is  not 
perhaps  in  its  mechanical  dis- 
cussion of  the  housing  of  them, 
but  in  what  he  says  of  books 
themselves.  At  times  he  speaks 
of  books  with  something  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  true  collector, 
or  if  it  be  not  really  enthusiasm 
it  sounds  like  sympathy.  But  it 
is,  nevertheless,  always  open  to 
doubt  whether  he  cares  very 
much  for  books  otherwise  than  for  the  purposes  of  reading.  There  is 
not  much  in  this  article,  or  in  any  writing  of  his  which  I  recall  to  mind, 
to  show  that  he  possesses  any  special  knowledge  of  books  from  the 
collector's  point  of  view.  Curiosities  like  the  diamond  editions  of  the 
late  Mr.  Pickering  or  the  miniature  prayer-books  of  Mr.  Froude  amuse 
him.  Nay,  he  makes  a  remark  on  one  of  them  which  almost  savors 
of  humor.  Pickering's  Dante,  says  Mr.  Gladstone,  weighs  less  than 
a  number  of  "The  Times."  With  these  exceptions,  his  thirteen 
pages  might  have  been  written  by  one  to  whom  books  are  precious 
only  for  what  they  contain,  and  not  for  their  rarity,  or  for  their  beauty, 
or  for  having  belonged  to  famous  owners,  or  for  being  original  edi- 
tions, or  for  the  printer's  mark,  or  for  any  other  of  the  many  reasons 
which  make  many  volumes  dear  to  the  true  lover  of  books,  in  addi- 
tion to,  and  sometimes  independently  of,  their  literary  worth. 

Mr.  Gladstone  is  a  utilitarian,  but  he  never  could  have  regarded 
books  as  Darwin  did.  There  is  a  horrible  passage  in  one  of  Darwin's 
letters,  in  which  he  describes  himself  as  tearing  in  two  a  volume  which 
he  found  inconveniently  heavy.  The  book  was  not  rent  asunder  with 
any  thought  of  its  parts  being  recruited  or  bound ;  it  was  left  in  frag- 
ments, its  dismemberment  was  forever,  and  there  was  no  instigating 
circumstance  in  the  barbarity  of  the  act  of  the  great  naturalist.  Yet 
even  Mr.  Gladstone  is  capable  of  proposing  to  pack  his  books  upon 
shelves  constructed  as  to  allow  neither  light  nor  air.  He  says  "twelve 
inches  is  a  fair  and  liberal  depth  for  octavos,"  and  he  allows  but  nine 
inches  for  the  average  height  of  8vo  shelving.  This  is  to  construct, 
not  a  library,  nor  even  a  warehouse  for  books,  but  a  prison. 

G.  W.  SMALLEY,  in  "  New-York  Tribune." 


65 
LONG  PRIMER  EXPANDED.    TREBLE  LEADED.    31  LINES,  236  WORDS. 


HILE  I  am  with  ray 
books  I  enjoy  the  best 
solitary  company  in  the 
world.  In  this  particu- 
lar chiefly  they  excel  all 
other  company,  that  in  study  I  am  sure  to 
converse  with  none  but  wise  men ;  but  it 
is  impossible  abroad  for  me  to  avoid  the  so- 
ciety of  fools.  Here,  without  traveling  so  far 
as  Endor,  I  can  call  up  the  ablest  spirits  of 
those  times,  the  learnedest  philosophers,  the 
wisest  counselors,  the  greatest  generals,  and 
make  them  serviceable  to  me.  I  can  make 
bold  with  the  best  jewels  they  have  in  their 
treasury  with  the  same  freedom  that  the 
Israelites  borrowed  of  the  Egyptians,  and, 
without  suspicion  of  felony,  make  use  of 
them  as  mine  own.  I  can  here,  without 
trespassing,  go  into  their  vineyards,  and 
not  only  eat  my  fill  of  their  grapes  for  my 
pleasure,  but  put  up  as  much  as  I  will  in 
my  vessel,  and  store  it  for  my  profit.  Lord, 
teach  me  so  to  study  other  men's  works  as 
not  to  neglect  mine  own;  and  so  to  study 
thy  TV^ord,  which  is  thy  work,  that  it  may 
be  my  candle  to  work  by.  Take  me  off  from 
the  curiosity  of  knowing  only  to  know ;  from 
the  vanity  of  knowing  only  to  be  known ; 
and  from  the  folly  of  pretending  to  know 
more  than  I  do  know :  and  let  it  be  my  wis- 
dom to  know  thee  who  art  life  eternal. 


SIR  WILLIAM  WALLER. 


66 
LONG  PRIMER  No.  20.    DOUBLE  LEADED.     36  LINES,  456  WORDS. 


TljfHE  inhabitants  of  the  earth  in  remote  times  were  divided 
I  into  small  states  or  societies,  often  at  enmity  among  them- 
1 1  selves,  and  whose  thoughts  and  interests  were  confined 
;  within  their  own  narrow  territories.     In  succeeding  ages 
'.'  *  men  joined  themselves  into  larger  communities,  as  when 

the  English  heptarchy  became  united,  or  later  when  England,  Scotland 
and  Ireland  became  one;  but  still  distant  kingdoms  and  quarters  of  the 
world  were  of  no  interest  to  them,  and  often  were  totally  unknown.  Now, 
however,  a  man  feels  that  he  is  a  member  of  one  vast  civilized  society  which 
covers  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  no  part  of  the  earth  is  indifferent  to  him. 
Even  a  journeyman  mechanic  who  is  honest,  sober,  and  intelligent  may 
say  with  truth  and  exultation  :  "  I  am  lodged  in  a  house  that  affords  me  con- 
veniences and  comforts  which  some  centuries  ago  even  a  king  could  not 
command.  Ships  are  crossing  the  seas  in  every  direction  to  bring  to  me 
what  is  useful  from  all  parts  of  the  earth ;  in  China  men  are  gathering  the 
tea  leaf  for  me ;  in  the  West  India  Islands  and  elsewhere  they  are  preparing 
my  sugar  and  my  coffee ;  in  the  South  they  are  cultivating  cotton  for  me ; 
elsewhere  they  are  shearing  the  sheep  to  give  me  abundance  of  warm  cloth- 
ing ;  at  home  powerful  steam  engines  are  spinning  and  weaving  for  me,  and 
making  cutlery,  and  pumping  the  mines  that  minerals  useful  to  me  may  be 
procured.  My  patrimony  was  small,  yet  I  have  railway  trains  running  day 
and  night  on  all  the  roads  to  carry  my  correspondence  and  to  bring  the  coal 
for  my  winter  fire ;  nay,  I  have  protecting  fleets  and  armies  around  my  happy 
country,  to  render  secure  my  enjoyments  and  repose.  Then  I  have  editors 
and  printers,  who  daily  send  me  an  account  of  what  is  going  on  throughout 
the  world,  among  these  people  who  serve  me.  And  in  a  corner  of  my 
house  I  have  books — the  miracle  of  all  my  possessions,  more  wonderful  than 
the  wishing-cap  of  the  Arabian  tales,  for  they  transport  me  instantly,  not 
only  to  all  places,  but  to  all  times.  By  my  books  I  can  conjure  up  before 
me  to  a  momentary  existence  many  of  the  great  and  good  men  of  past  ages, 
and  for  my  individual  satisfaction  they  seem  to  act  again  the  most  renowned 
of  their  achievements ;  the  orators  declaim  for  me,  the  historians  recite,  the 
poets  sing."  This  picture  is  not  overcharged,  and  might  be  much  extended ; 
such  being  the  goodness  and  providence  which  devised  this  world,  that  each 
individual  of  the  civilized  millions  that  cover  it,  if  his  conduct  be  prudent, 
may  have  nearly  the  same  happiness  as  if  he  were  the  single  lord  of  all. 

DR.  ARNOTT. 


67 
LONG  PRIMER  No.  n.     DOUBLE  LEADED.    36  LINES,  447  WORDS. 


DO  not  know  whether  it  has  been  sufficiently  brought 
home  to  you  that  there  are  two  kinds  of  books.  When 
a  man  is  reading  on  any  kind  of  subject,  in  most  de- 
partments of  books,— in  all  books,  if  you  take  it  in  a 
wide  sense, — he  will  find  that  there  is  a  division  into 
good  books  and  bad  books.  Everywhere  a  good  kind  of  book  and  a 
bad  kind  of  book.  I  am  not  to  assume  that  you  are  unacquainted,  or 
ill-acquainted,  with  this  plain  fact;  but  I  may  remind  you  that  it  is 
becoming  a  very  important  consideration  in  our  day.  And  we  have 
to  cast  aside  altogether  the  idea  people  have,  that  if  they  are  reading 
any  book,  that  if  an  ignorant  man  is  reading  any  book,  he  is  doing 
rather  better  than  nothing  at  all.  I  must  entirely  call  that  in  ques- 
tion; I  even  venture  to  deny  that.  It  would  be  much  safer  and  better 
for  many  a  reader,  that  he  had  no  concern  with  books  at  all.  There 
is  a  number,  a  frightfully  increasing  number,  of  books  that  are  decid- 
edly, to  the  readers  of  them,  not  useful.  But  an  ingenious  reader  will 
learn,  also,  that  a  certain  number  of  books  were  written  by  a  supremely 
noble  kind  of  people;  not  a  very  great  number  of  books,  but  still  a 
number  fit  to  occupy  all  your  reading  industry,  do  adhere  more  or  less 
to  that  side  of  things.  In  short,  as  I  have  written  it  down  somewhere 
else,  I  conceive  that  books  are  like  men's  souls1— divided  into  sheep 
and  goats.  Some  few  are  going  up,  and  carrying  us  up,  heavenward; 
calculated,  I  mean,  to  be  of  priceless  advantage  in  teaching — in  for- 
warding the  teaching  of  all  generations.  Others,  a  frightful  multitude, 
are  going  down,  down;  doing  ever  the  more  and  the  wider  and  the 
wilder  mischief.  Keep  a  strict  eye  on  that  latter  class  of  books,  my 
young  friends.  Learn  to  be  good  readers,  which  is  perhaps  a  more 
difficult  thing  than  you  imagine.  Learn  to  be  discriminative  in  your 
reading;  to  read  faithfully,  and  with  your  best  attention,  all  kinds  of 
things  you  have  a  real  interest  in, — a  real,  not  an  imaginary, —  and 
which  you  find  to  be  really  fit  for  what  you  are  engaged  in.  The  most 
unhappy  of  all  men  is  the  man  who  cannot  tell  what  he  is  going  to  do, 
who  has  got  no  work  cut  out  for  him  in  the  world,  and  does  not  go 
into  it  with  all  his  might.  For  work  is  the  grand  cure  of  all  the  mal- 
adies and  miseries  that  ever  beset  mankind — honest  work,  which  you 
intend  getting  done. 


THOMAS  CARLYLE. 


68 


BOURGEOIS  No.  20.     SOLID.     57  LINES,  654  WORDS. 


E  form  judgments  of  men  from  little 
things  about  their  houses,  of  which 
the  owner,  perhaps,  never  thinks. 
In  earlier  years  when  traveling  in 
the  West)  where  taverns  were  very 
scarce,  and  in  some  places  indeed 
unknown,  and  every  settler's  house 
was  a  house  of  entertainment,  it 
was  a  matter  of  some  importance 
and  experience  to  select  where  you 
should  put  up.  And  we  always 
looked  for  flowers.  If  there  were 
no  trees  for  shade,  no  bright  patch 
of  flowers  in  the  yard,  we  became 
suspicious  of  the  place.  But  no 
matter  how  rude  the  cabin,  or  how 
rough  the  surroundings,  if  we  saw 
that  the  window  held  a  little  trough 
for  flowers,  and  that  some  vines 
twined  about  strings  let  down  from 
the  eaves,  we  were  confident  that  there  was  some  taste  and  carefulness  in  the  log 
cabin.  In  a  new  country,  where  the  people  have  to  tug  for  a  living,  no  one  will 
take  the  trouble  to  rear  flowers  unless  the  love  of  them  is  pretty  strong;  and  this 
taste,  blossoming  out  of  uncultivated  people,  is  like  a  clump  of  harebells  growing 
out  of  the  seams  of  a  rock.  We  were  very  seldom  misled.  Flowers  came  to 
signify  kind  people,  clean  beds,  and  good  bread. 

But  in  other  states  of  society  other  signs  are  more  significant.  Flowers  about 
a  rich  man's  house  may  signify  only  that  he  has  a  good  gardener,  and  does  what 
he  sees  them  do.  But  men  are  not  accustomed  to  buy  books  unless  they  want 
them.  If  on  visiting  the  dwelling  of  a  man  in  slender  means  we  find  that  he  con- 
tents himself  with  cheap  carpets  and  very  plain  furniture  in  order  that  he  may 
purchase  books,  he  rises  at  once  in  our  esteem.  Books  are  not  made  for  furni- 
ture, but  there  is  nothing  else  that  so  beautifully  furnishes  a  house.  The  plainest 
row  of  books  that  cloth  or  paper  ever  covered  is  more  significant  of  refinement 
than  the  most  elaborate  etagere  or  sideboard.  Give  us  a  house  furnished  with 
books  rather  than  furniture.  Both  if  you  can,  but  books  at  any  rate!  To  spend 
several  days  in  a  friend's  house,  and  hunger  for  something  to  read,  while  you  are 
treading  on  costly  carpets,  and  sitting  on  luxuriant  chairs,  and  sleeping  upon 
down,  is  as  if  one  were  bribing  your  body  for  the  sake  of  cheating  your  mind. 
Is  it  not  pitiable  to  see  a  man  growing  rich,  augmenting  the  comforts  of  home, 
and  lavishing  money  on  ostentatious  upholstery,  upon  the  table,  upon  everything 
but  what  the  soul  needs?  We  know  of  many  and  many  a  rich  man's  house, 
where  it  would  not  be  safe  to  ask  for  the  commonest  English  Classics.  A  few 
garish  Annuals  on  the  table,  a  few  pictorial  monstrosities,  together  with  the  stock 
religious  books  of  his  "persuasion,"  and  that  is  all!  No  poets,  no  essayists,  no 
historians,  no  travels  or  biographies,  no  select  fiction  or  curious  legendary  lore. 
But  the  wall  paper  cost  three  dollars  a  roll,  and  the  carpet  cost  four  dollars  a  yard ! 
Books  are  the  windows  through  which  the  soul  looks  out.  A  home  without 
books  is  like  a  room  without  windows.  No  man  has  a  right  to  bring  up  his  chil- 
dren without  surrounding  them  with  books,  if  he  has  the  means  to  buy  them. 
It  is  a  wrong  to  his  family.  He  cheats  them  !  Children  learn  to  read  by  being 
in  the  presence  of  books.  The  love  of  knowledge  comes  with  reading  and  grows 
upon  it.  And  the  love  of  knowledge,  in  a  young  mind,  is  a  warrant  against  the 
inferior  excitement  of  passions  and  vices.  Let  us  congratulate  the  poor  that,  in 
our  day,  books  are  so  cheap  that  a  man  may  every  year  add  a  hundred  volumes 
to  his  library  for  the  price  which  his  tobacco  and  his  beer  would  cost  him.  A 
little  library  growing  larger  every  year  is  an  honorable  part  of  a  man's  history. 


HENRY  WARD  BEECHER. 


69 
BOURGEOIS  No.  u.     SOLID.     57  LINES,  660  WORDS. 


GREAT  library  cannot  be  constructed  —  it  is  the 
growth  of  ages.  You  may  buy  books  at  any  time 
with  money,  but  you  cannot  make  a  library  like  one 
that  has  been  a  century  or  two  a-growing,  though 
you  had  the  whole  national  debt  to  do  it  with.  I 
remember  once  how  an  extensive  publisher,  speak- 
ing of  the  rapid  strides  which  literature  had  made 
of  late  years,  and  referring  to  a  certain  old  public 
library  ?  celebrated  for  its  affluence  in  the  fathers, 
the  civilians,  and  the  medieval  chroniclers,  stated 
how  he  had  himself  freighted  for  exportation, 
within  the  past  month,  as  many  books  as  that 
whole  library  consisted  of.  This  was  likely  enough 
to  be  true,  but  the  two  collections  were  very  dif- 
ferent from  each  other.  The  cargoes  of  books  were  probably  thousands  of 
copies  of  some  few  popular  selling  works.  They  might  be  a  powerful  illus- 
tration of  the  diffusion  of  knowledge,  but  what  they  were  compared  with 
was  its  concentration.  Had  all  the  paper  of  which  these  cargoes  consisted 
been  bank-notes  they  would  not  have  enabled  their  owner  to  duplicate  the 
old  library,  rich  in  the  fathers,  the  civilians,  and  medieval  chroniclers. 

This  impossibility  of  improvising  libraries  is  really  an  important  and  curi- 
ous thing;  and  since  it  is  apt  to  be  overlooked,  owing  to  the  facility  of  buy- 
ing books,  in  quantities  generally  far  beyond  the  available  means  of  any 
ordinary  buyer,  it  seems  worthy  of  some  special  consideration.  A  man  who 
sets  out  to  form  a  library  will  go  on  swimmingly  for  a  short  way.  He  will 
easily  get  Tennyson's  Poems,  Macaulay's  and  Alison's  histories,  the  Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica,  Buckle  on  Civilization  —  all  the  books  "in  print,"  as  it 
is  termed.  Nay,  he  will  find  no  difficulty  in  procuring  copies  of  others  which 
may  not  happen  to  be  on  the  shelves  of  the  publisher  or  of  the  retailer  of  new 
books.  Of  Voltaire's  works  —  a  little  library  in  itself — he  will  get  a  copy  at 
his  call  in  London,  if  he  has  not  set  his  mind  on  some  special  edition.  So  of 
Scott's  edition  of  Swift  or  Dry  den,  Croker's  edition  of  Bos  well's  Johnson, 
and  the  like.  One  can  scarcely  suppose  a  juncture  in  which  any  of  these 
cannot  be  found  through  the  electric  chain  of  communication  established  by 
the  book-trade.  Of  Gibbon's  and  Hume's  histories,  Jeremy  Taylor's  works, 
Bossuet's  Universal  History,  and  the  like,  copies  abound  everywhere.  Go 
back  a  little  and  ask  for  Rennet's  Collection  of  the  Historians,  Echard's  His- 
tory, Bayle  Moreri,  or  Father  Daniel's  History  of  France;  you  cannot  be  so 
certain  of  immediately  obtaining  your  object,  but  you  will  get  the  book  in 
the  end — no  doubt  about  that.  They  are  not  yet  excessively  rare. 

Everything  has  its  caprices,  and  there  are  some  books  which  might  be  ex- 
pected to  be  equally  shy,  but  in  reality,  by  some  inexplicable  fatality,  are  as 
plentiful  as  blackberries.  Such,  for  instance,  are  Famianus  Strada's  History 
of  the  Dutch  War  of  Independence — one  of  the  most  brilliant  works  ever  writ- 
ten, and  in  the  very  best  Latin  after  Buchanan's.  There  is  Buchanan's  own 
history,  very  common  even  in  the  shape  of  the  early  Scotch  edition  of  Ar- 
buthnot's  printing.  Then  there  are  Barclay's  Argenis,  and  Raynal's  Philo- 
sophical History  of  the  East  and  West  Indies,  without  which  no  book-stall  is 
to  be  considered  complete,  and  which  seem  to  be  possessed  of  a  supernatural 
power  of  resistance  to  the  elements,  since,  month  after  month,  in  fair  weather 
or  foul,  they  are  to  be  seen  at  their  posts  dry  or  dripping. 

So  the  collector  goes  on,  till  he  perhaps  collects  some  five  thousand  volumes 
or  so  of  select  works.  If  he  is  miscellaneous  in  his  tastes,  he  may  get  on  pretty 
comfortably  to  ten  or  fifteen  thousand,  and  then  his  troubles  will  arise.  And 
woe  betide  him  if  he  sets  his  heart  upon  obtaining  the  original  editions  of 
rare  prints,  for  after  the  search  of  a  lifetime  he  may  go  to  his  grave  a  disap- 
pointed man. 


70 
BOURGEOIS  No.  20.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     50  LINES,  688  WORDS. 


SAY  first  we  have  despised  literature.  What  do  we,  as  a 
nation,  care  about  books?  How  much  do  you  think  we 
spend  altogether  on  our  libraries,  public  or  private,  as  com- 
pared with  what  we  spend  on  our, horses  ?  If  a  man  spends 
lavishly  on  his  library,  you  call  him  mad  —  a  biblio-maniac. 
But  you  never  call  any  one  a  horse-maniac,  though  men 
ruin  themselves  every  day  by  their  horses,  and  you  do  not 
hear  of  people  ruining  themselves  by  their  books.  Or,  to 
go  lower  still,  how  much  do  you  think  the  contents  of  the  book-shelves  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  public  and  private,  would  fetch  as  compared  with  the  contents 
of  its  wine  cellars  ?  What  position  would  its  expenditure  on  literature  take  as 
compared  with  its  expenditure  on  luxurious  eating  ?  We  talk  of  food  for  the 
mind,  as  of  food  for  the  body :  now  a  good  book  contains  such  food  inexhaust- 
ibly ;  it  is  a  provision  for  life,  and  for  the  best  part  of  us  ;  yet  how  long  most 
people  would  look  at  the  best  book  before  they  would  give  the  price  of  a  large 
turbot  for  it !  Though  there  have  been  men  who  have  pinched  their  stomachs 
and  bared  their  backs  to  buy  a  book,  whose  libraries  were  cheaper  to  them,  I 
think,  in  the  end  than  most  men's  dinners  are.  We  are  few  of  us  put  to  such 
trial,  and  more  the  pity  ;  for,  indeed,  a  precious  thing  is  all  the  more  precious  to 
us  if  it  has  been  won  by  work  or  economy ;  and  if  public  libraries  were  half  as 
costly  as  public  dinners,  or  books  cost  the  tenth  part  of  what  bracelets  do,  even 
foolish  men  and  women  might  sometimes  suspect  there  was  good  in  reading,  as 
well  as  in  munching  and  sparkling ;  whereas  the  very  cheapness  of  literature  is 
making  even  wise  people  forget  that  if  a  book  is  worth  reading  it  is  worth  buying. 
No  book  is  worth  anything  which  is  not  worth  much  ;  nor  is  it  serviceable  until  it 
has  been  read,  and  re-read,  and  loved,  and  loved  again  ;  and  marked,  so  that  you 
can  refer  to  the  passages  you  want  in  it,  as  a  soldier  can  seize  the  weapon  he 
needs  in  an  armory,  or  a  housewife  bring  the  spice  she  needs  from  her  store. 
Bread  of  flour  is  good  ;  but  there  is  bread,  sweet  as  honey,  if  we  would  eat  it,  in 
a  good  book ;  and  the  family  must  be  poor  indeed  which  once  in  their  lives  can- 
not, for  such  multipliable  barley-loaves,  pay  their  baker's  bill.  We  call  ourselves 
a  rich  and  great  nation,  and  yet  we  are  filthy  enough  and  foolish  enough  to 
thumb  each  other's  books  out  of  circulating  libraries  ! 

Nevertheless  I  hope  it  will  not  be  long  before  royal  or  national  libraries  will 
be  founded  in  every  considerable  city,  with  a  royal  series  of  books  in  them  ;  the 
same  series  in  every  one  of  them,  chosen  books,  the  best  in  every  kind,  prepared 
for  that  national  series  in  the  most  perfect  way  possible  ;  their  text  printed  all  on 
leaves  of  equal  size,  broad  of  margin,  and  divided  into  pleasant  volumes,  light  in 
the  hand,  beautiful  and  strong,  and  thorough  as  examples  of  binder's  work ;  and 
that  these  libraries  will  be  accessible  to  all  clean  and  orderly  persons  at  all  times  of 
the  day  and  evening ;  strict  law  being  enforced  for  this  cleanliness  and  quietness. 
I  could  shape  for  you  other  plans,  for  art  galleries,  and  for  natural  history 
galleries,  and  for  many  precious,  many,  it  seems  to  me,  needful,  things ;  but 
this  book  plan  is  the  easiest  and  the  needfulest,  and  would  prove  a  considerable 
tonic  to  what  we  call  our  British  constitution,  which  has  fallen  dropsical  of 
late,  and  has  an  evil  thirst,  and  evil  hunger,  and  wants  healthier  feeding.  You 
have  got  its  corn  laws  repealed  for  it ;  try  if  you  cannot  get  corn  laws  estab- 
lished for  it,  dealing  in  a  better  bread — bread  made  of  that  old  enchanted 
Arabian  grain,  the  Sesame,  which  opens  doors  ;  doors,  not  of  robbers',  but  of 
Kings'  Treasuries. 

JOHN  RUSKIN. 


BOURGEOIS  No.  u.     TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     50  LINES,  637  WORDS. 


I 


OR  the  knowledge  that  comes  from  books  I  would  claim  no 
more  than  it  is  fairly  entitled  to.  I  am  well  aware  that 
there  is  no  inevitable  connection  between  intellectual  cul- 
tivation, on  the  one  hand,  and  individual  virtue  or  social 
well-being,  on  the  other.  "  The  tree  of  knowledge  is  not 
the  tree  of  life."  I  admit  that  genius  and  learning  are 
sometimes  found  in  combination  with  gross  vices,  and  not 
I  unfrequently  with  contemptible  weaknesses;  and  that  a 
community  at  once  cultivated  and  corrupt  is  no  impossible  monster.  But  it 
is  no  overstatement  to  say  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the  man  who  has 
the  greatest  amount  of  intellectual  resources  is  in  the  least  danger  from  infe- 
rior temptations — if  for  no  other  reason,  because  lie  has  fewer  idle  moments. 
The  ruin  of  most  men  dates  from  some  vacant  hour.  Occupation  is  the  armor 
of  the  soul ;  and  the  train  of  Idleness  is  borne  up  by  all  the  vices.  I  remem- 
ber a  satirical  poem  in  which  the  devil  is  represented  as  fishing  for  men,  and 
adapting  his  baits  to  the  taste  and  temperament  of  his  prey  j  but  the  idler 
pleased  him  most,  he  said,  because  he  bit  the  naked  hook.  To  a  young  man 
away  from  home,  friendless  and  forlorn  in  a  great  city,  the  hours  of  peril  are 
those  between  sunset  and  bed- time ;  for  the  moon  and  the  stars  see  more  of 
evil  in  a  single  hour  than  the  sun  in  his  whole  day's  circuit.  The  poet's  vis- 
ions of  evening  are  all  compact  of  tender  and  soothing  images.  It  brings  the 
wanderer  to  his  home,  the  ox  to  his  stall,  and  the  weary  laborer  to  his  rest. 
But  to  the  gentle-hearted  youth  who  is  thrown  upon  the  rocks  of  a  pitiless 
city,  and  stands  "homeless  among  a  thousand  homes,"  the  approach  of  even- 
ing brings  with  it  an  aching  sense  of  loneliness  and  desolation,  which  comes 
down  upon  the  spirit  like  darkness  upon  the  earth.  In  this  mood  his  best 
impulses  become  a  snare  to  him ;  and  he  is  led  astray  because  he  is  social,  af- 
fectionate, sympathetic,  and  warm-hearted.  If  there  be  a  young  man  thus 
circumstanced  who  reads  these  lines,  let  me  inform  you  that  books  are  the 
friends  of  the  friendless,  and  that  a  library  is  the  home  of  the  homeless. 
A  taste  for  reading  will  always  carry  you  into  the  best  possible  society,  and 
enable  you  to  converse  with  men  who  will  instruct  you  by  their  wisdom,  and 
charm  you  by  their  wit  j  who  will  soothe  you  when  fretted,  refresh  you  when 
weary,  counsel  you  when  perplexed,  and  sympathize  with  you  at  all  times. 

In  books,  be  it  remembered,  we  have  the  best  products  of  the  best  minds. 
We  should  any  of  us  esteem  it  a  great  privilege  to  pass  an  evening  with 
Shakespeare  or  Bacon,  were  such  a  thing  possible.  But,  were  we  admitted 
to  the  presence  of  one  of  these  illustrious  men,  we  might  find  him  touched 
with  infirmity  or  oppressed  with  weariness,  or  darkened  with  the  shadow  of 
a  recent  trouble,  or  absorbed  by  intrusive  and  tyrannous  thoughts.  To  us 
the  oracle  might  be  dumb,  and  the  light  eclipsed.  But  when  we  take  down 
one  of  these  volumes  we  run  no  such  risk.  Here  we  have  their  best  thoughts 
embalmed  in  their  best  words.  Here  we  find  the  growth  of  the  choicest  sea- 
sons of  the  mind,  when  mortal  cares  were  forgotten,  and  mortal  weaknesses 
were  subdued,  and  the  soul,  stripped  of  its  vanities  and  passions,  gave  forth 
its  highest  emanations  of  truth  and  beauty.  We  may  be  sure  that  Shake- 
speare never  out-talked  his  Hamlet,  nor  Bacon  his  Essays. 

Great  writers  are  indeed  best  known  through  their  books.  How  very  little, 
for  instance,  do  we  know  of  the  life  of  Shakespeare ;  but  how  much  do  we 
know  of  him ! 

GEORGE  S.  HILLARD. 


72 
BOURGEOIS  No.  20.     LEADED.    47  LINES,  623  WORDS. 


SAY,  then,  that  books,  taken  indiscriminately,  are  no  cure  to 
the  diseases  and  afflictions  of  the  mind.  There  is  a  world  of 
science  necessary  in  the  taking  them.  I  have  known  some 
people  in  great  sorrow  fly  to  a  novel, -or  the  last  light  book  in 
fashion.  One  might  as  well  take  a  rose-draught  for  the  plague  ! 
Light  reading  does  not  do  when  the  heart  is  really  heavy.  I  am 
told  that  Goethe,  when  he  lost  his  son,  took  to  study  a  science  that  was  new  to 
him.  Ah  !  Goethe  was  a  physician  who  knew  what  he  was  about.  In  a  great 
grief  like  that,  you  cannot  tickle  and  divert  the  mind ;  you  must  wrench  it  away, 
abstract,  absorb — bury  it  in  an  abyss,  hurry  it  into  a  labyrinth.  Therefore,  for 
the  irremediable  sorrows  of  middle  life  and  old  age,  I  recommend  a  strict  chronic 
course  of  science  and  hard  reasoning — counter-irritation.  Bring  the  brain  to 
act  upon  the  heart !  If  science  is  too  much  against  the  grain  (for  we  have  not 
all  got  mathematical  heads),  something  in  the  reach  of  the  humblest  under- 
standing, but  sufficiently  searching  to  the  highest — a  new  language  —  Greek, 
Arabic,  Scandinavian,  Chinese,  or  Welsh!  For  the  loss  of  fortune  the  dose 
should  be  applied  less  directly  to  the  understanding — I  would  administer  some- 
thing elegant  and  cordial.  For,  as  the  heart  is  crushed  and  lacerated  by  a  loss 
in  the  affections,  so  it  is  rather  the  head  that  aches  and  suffers  by  the  loss  of 
money.  Here  we  find  the  higher  class  of  poets  a  very  valuable  remedy.  For 
observe  that  poets  of  the  grander  and  more  comprehensive  kind  of  genius  have 
in  them  two  separate  men,  quite  distinct  from  each  other — the  imaginative 
man,  and  the  practical,  circumstantial  man;  and  it  is  the  happy  mixture  of  these 
that  suits  diseases  of  the  mind,  half  imaginative  and  half  practical.  If  you  take 
them  gently  and  quietly,  they  will  not,  like  your  mere  philosopher,  your  unreason- 
able stoic,  tell  you  that  you  have  lost  nothing;  but  they  will  insensibly  steal  you 
out  of  this  world,  with  its  losses  and  crosses,  and  slip  you  into  another  world, 
before  you  know  where  you  are  !  — a  world  where  you  are  just  as  welcome,  though 
you  carry  no  more  earth  of  your  lost  acres  with  you  than  covers  the  sole  of  your 
shoe.  Then,  for  hypochondria  and  satiety,  what  is  better  than  a  brisk,  alterative 
course  of  travels —  especially  early,  qut-of-the-way,  marvelous,  legendary  travels  ! 
How  they  freshen  up  the  spirits !  How  they  take  you  out  of  the  humdrum,  yawn- 
ing state  you  are  in.  Then,  for  that  vice  of  the  mind  which  I  call  sectarianism — 
not  in  the  religious  sense  of  the  word,  but  little,  narrow  prejudices,  that  make 
you  hate  your  next-door  neighbor  because  he  has  his  eggs  roasted  when  you  have 
yours  boiled;  and  gossiping  and  prying  into  people's  affairs,  and  backbiting,  and 
thinking  heaven  and  earth  are  coming  together,  if  some  broom  touch  the  cobweb 
that  you  have  let  grow  over  the  window-sill  of  your  brains  —  what  like  a  large 
and  generous,  mildly  aperient  course  of  history !  How  it  clears  away  all  the 
fumes  of  the  head !  —  better  than  the  hellebore  with  which  the  old  leeches  of  the 
middle  ages  purged  the  cerebellum.  There,  amidst  all  that  great  whirl  and 
sturmbad,  as  the  Germans  say,  of  kingdoms  and  empires,  and  races  and  ages, 
how  your  mind  enlarges  beyond  that  little,  feverish  animosity  to  John  Styles ;  or 
that  unfortunate  prepossession  of  yours,  that  all  the  world  is  interested  in  your 
grievances  against  Tom  Stokes  and  his  wife  ! 

"  How  little  a  space  one  sorrow  really  makes  in  life;  and  how  triumphantly 
the  life  sails  on  beyond  it !  " 

LORD  LYTTON  (BULWER),  "The  Caxtons." 


73 

BOURGEOIS  No.  n.     LEADED.    47  LINKS,  572  WORDS. 


HEN  work  is  offered  by  an  entire  stranger,  without  set- 
tled or  known  place  of  business,  prepayment  should  be 
requested.  This  is  a  delicate  duty,  but  it  may  be  done 
courteously,  and  without  giving  offense.  An  honest  and 
reasonable  customer  will  readily  see  the  necessity  of  the 
rule,  and  will  as  readily  comply  with  it.  If  the  necessary 
precaution  is  omitted,  the  office  must  look  for  many  losses. 
Credit  is  frequently  requested.  This  is  an  application 
that  no  clerk  has  a  right  to  entertain,  even  from  persons  of  known  responsi- 
bility. In  all  cases  such  a  request  should  be  referred  to  the  proprietor  or 
manager  for  his  decision.  It  is  a  matter  in  which  there  is  much  conflicting 
local  usage,  and  for  which  no  positive  rules  can  be  given.  There  are  cases 
in  which  credit  is  beneficial  to  both  parties,  but  upon  most  applications  it 
should  be  declined.  The  apparent  value  of  printed  work,  and  the  disposition 
to  pay  for  it,  is  never  greater  than  it  is  on  its  first  receipt.  It  will  be  found 
judicious  to  avoid  all  running  accounts,  and  to  secure  at  least  monthly  settle- 
ments with  all  customers.  Cash  should  be  the  rule  j  credit  the  exception . 

To  persons  of  an  enthusiastic  and  speculative  temperament,  printing  prom- 
ises great  advantages  in  the  prosecution  of  business.  Their  proclivity  to  run 
in  debt  should  not  be  encouraged  by  any  printer.  If  the  applicant  has  not 
the  money  to  hazard  in  an  advertising  experiment,  it  is  more  than  probable 
that  he  never  will  earn  it.  There  are  certain  kinds  of  printing  for  which 
credit  should  never  be  given.  All  kinds  of  election  work,  the  publishing  of 
a  newspaper  or  a  book,  or  the  establishment  of  an  invention  or  patent  med- 
icine, are  as  full  of  hazard  as  any  form  of  gambling.  The  party  intending 
to  reap  the  reward  should  take  the  sole  risk,  and  pay  any  loss. 

Probably  no  class  of  tradesmen  suffer  more  severely  from  the  failure  of 
adventurers  than  printers.  A  thrifty  printer,  who  wishes  to  maintain  his 
own  credit,  must  be  inexorable  in  refusing  credit  to  all  new  and  unendorsed 
publishing  enterprises.  Work  should  stop  when  pay  stops.  Cases  will  occur 
where  the  application  of  such  a  rigorous  rule  will  appear  both  harsh  and 
injudicious.  But  it  is  the  experience  of  all  old  printers,  that  it  is  much  the 
wiser  course  to  lose  an  apparently  valuable  customer  and  profitable  work, 
rather  than  take  risk  with  him.  To  break  friendly  business  relations  on 
grounds  of  distrust  with  an  estimable  man  is  always  an  unpleasant  duty,  and 
one  that  will  require  some  nerve  on  the  part  of  the  young  printer,  especially 
if  the  customer  is  already  somewhat  in  debt,  and  refusal  to  trust  him  further 
is  probably  equivalent  to  a  certain  loss  of  the  indebtedness  that  has  been 
already  incurred.  This  disagreeable  task  can  be  materially  lightened  by 
advising  the  customer  before  the  work  is  accepted,  that  under  no  circum- 
stances can  there  be  any  credit;  that  a  failure  to  make  weekly  payments 
from  any  cause  whatever  will  stop  the  work.  A  customer  who  declines  to 
accede  to  such  arrangements  is  not  desirable.  When  credit  is  given,  it  should 
be  given  with  a  limit  as  to  amount,  but  fully  and  heartily  in  form.  Pay  no 
attention  to  evasive  or  conditional  promises.  Accept  no  equivocation  or 
division  of  responsibility.  If  the  person  who  is  expected  to  pay  the  bill  will 
not  give  a  positive  order,  decline  the  work. 


74 
BREVIER  No.  20.     SOLID.    64  LINES,  ion  WORDS. 


HERE  came  into  my  hands  by  chance  the  other  day  a  copy  of  the  first  edition 
of  the  works  of  John  Hookham  Frere,  published  by  Mr.  B.  M.  Picker- 
ing, son  of  that  William  Pickering  whose  name  has  long  been  honored 
by  lovers  of  fine  books.  This  copy  —  and  I  hope  not  to  scare  off  the  gen- 
eral reader  by  the  phrase  —  is  on  large  paper,  and  of  such  copies  only  25 
in  all  were  printed.  Of  those  on  ordinary  paper  the  whole  number,  if  I 
recollect  rightly,  did  not  exceed  750.  The  book  became  a  scarce  one  soon 
after  its  publication,  for  when  it  went  out  of  print  copies  filtered  back  into 
the  market  very  slowly.  Both  the  Pickerings  have  shown  courage  in  giving  to  the  public 
editions  of  great  writers  whom  other  publishers  would  not  touch.  The  public  prove 
sometimes  grateful  and  sometimes  ungrateful.  In  other  words,  these  issues  were  not  al- 
ways profitable,  but  scholars  and  literary  men  and  bibliophiles  of  all  grades  reaped  the 
benefit  of  Mr.  Pickering's  enterprise.  In  the  end,  I  may  add,  the  public  has  been  made 
to  pay  handsomely.  Many  books  which  the  late  Mr.  Pickering  sold  off  at  a  fourth  of  the 
cost  have  of  late  years  been  bringing  more  than  four  times  their  published  price.  It  is  a 
pity  that  this  appreciation  of  them  came  too  late  to  be  of  help  to  him.  In  the  case  of  Mr. 
Frere's  works,  the  demand  proved  to  be  so  unexpectedly  great  that  a  second  edition  was 
finally  called  for.  This  has  been  printed-  in  a  style  slightly  less  luxurious  than  the  first, 
but  is,  in  point  of  elegance,  superior  to  most  of  the  books  of  the  day. 

As  there  is  still  here  and  there  a  publisher  who  aims  at  excellence  in  book-making,  he 
will  perhaps  allow  me  to  suggest  to  him  that  he  could  not  do  better  than  examine  with 
some  care  the  work  that  has  been  done  on  the  large  paper  Frere  of  the  first  edition.  The 
paper  is  hand-made,  and  of  a  texture  just  suited  to  take  a  good  impression:  not  too  hard 
in  surface,  as  the  best  Whatman  paper  sometimes  is  ;  not  too  rough,  as  'some  of  the  best 
of  the  Van  Gelder  and  other  Dutch  papers  are.  It  certainly  would  not  answer  for  ordi- 
nary books,  being  too  costly,  too  stiff  for  easy  folding,  and  otherwise  ill-adapted  to  the 
hurried  processes  of  book-binding  by  machinery.  I  notice  that  in  this  copy,  though  it  is 
not  bound  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  but  has  been  put  into  cloth  boards,  the  binder 
has  taken  the  precaution  to  cut  up  every  alternate  leaf,  with  the  gratifying  result  that  no 
creases  are  to  be  seen.  The  necessity  for  all  this  care  is  rather  an  advantage  than  other- 
wise, for  excellence  in  no  art  can  be  attained  without  difficulties  to  overcome.  And  in 
treating  of  book-making  as  an  art,  what  we  want  to  know  is,  not  the  best  average  work 
that  can  be  done,  but  the  best  absolutely.  There  will  be  no  danger  of  its  influence  on  the 
habits  of  the  trade  proving  too  great.  The  paper  is  white,  with  just  the  suggestion  of  a 
yellowish  tint  to  keep  it  from  being  glaring — by  no  means  what  American  publishers  at 
one  time  were  so  fond  of  under  the  name  of  tinted  paper,  which  was  of  a  positive  color, 
and  almost  worse  than  the  blue  tint  which  is  so  common  a  fault  in  the  Dutch  papers. 

A  practical  printer  would  be  the  first  to  admire  the  typography  of  the  book.  Its  various 
contents  required  a  great  variety  of  type.  More  than  a  dozen  different  sorts  of  letter  may 
be  counted  sometimes  on  a  single  page,  yet  there  is  an  evenness  of  appearance  throughout 
which  is  the  best  proof  of  good  taste  in  selection.  The  face  of  the  type  is  almost  always 
thin,  and  the  whole  of  it  is  at  once  elegant  and  clear.  The  vignettes,  initial  letters,  fleurons 
and  culs-de-lampe  are  carefully  designed  and  artistic.  The  press-work  has  been  done 
with  considerable  care.  It  is  too  seldom  that  one  sees  in  a  modern  book  so  distinct  an 
impression,  or  a  more  exact  register.  And  the  ink  is  black  —  not  quite  uniformly  so,  but 
as  a  rule,  and  has  a  real  luster.  This  is  the  greater  merit,  because  in  no  particular  does 
modern  book-making — even  the  best  —  more  commonly  fail.  In  cheap  books  it  must  be 
expected  to  fail,  for  good  ink  fetches  a  good  price.  This  is  the  weak  point  of  the  modern 
French  printers.  Maine's,  otherwise  fine  series  of  French  classics  offers  you  a  page  which 
is  positively  weak  from  the  paleness  of  the  ink.  Some  of  Jouaust's  work  has  the  same 
fault;  so  has  Scheuring's  and  Claye's,  though  an  exception  in  favor  of  the  latter  must  be 
made  in  the  case  of  the  Bida  Gospels  which  he  printed  for  Messrs.  Hachette.  It  must  be 
said  that  Whittingham  is  capable,  like  other  mortals,  of  using  gray  ink,  and  that  ink  may 
be  black  without  being  brilliant.  The  Chiswick  press,  like  all  others,  must  do  cheap  work 
for  profit,  and  occasional  good  work  for  the  glory  of  the  printer's  art.  In  accuracy  it 
leaves  something  to  be  desired.  The  page  of  errata  at  the  end  of  the  first  volume  shows 
careless  proof-reading.  The  most  beautiful  books  have  not  always  been  the  most  accu- 
rate. Many  of  the  incunabula  swarm  with  errors ;  the  best  sixteenth  century  books,  the 
best  Aldines  excepted,  are  far  from  immaculate ;  the  Elzevirs  in  the  next  age  are  of  every 
degree  of  merit ;  and  when  we  get  down  to  Bodoni  we  find  in  a  single  volume  the  extreme 
of  typographical  luxury  combined  with  scandalous  carelessness.  If  this  is  the  practical 
age  we  proclaim  it  to  be,  how  happens  it  we  make  so  little  progress  in  an  art  which  in  no 
other  age  was  ever  used  so  extensively  as  now?  Our  mechanical  improvements  have  been 
marvelous,  but  our  real  gains  are  limited  to  speed  and  cheapness  of  production. 

G.  W.  SMAIXEY,  in  "New -York  Tribune." 


75 

BREVIER  No.  n.     SOLID.     64  LINES,  913  WORDS. 


HERE  is  a  practice  among  publishers  which,  at  first  blush,  seems  an 
insult  offered  to  good  literature.  When  sending  out  a  traveler  to 
make  sales  to  booksellers  of  some  forthcoming  book,  they  will  fre- 
quently provide  him,  not  with  a  copy  of  the  book  itself,  but  with  a 
dummy  made  up  of  blank  paper,  trimly  clad  in  the  cloth  case  which 
is  finally  to  hold  the  book,  duly  stamped  and  lettered  in  black  and 
gold,  black  alone,  or  gold  alone,  or  simply  stamped  in  blind.  By  this 
sample  he  is  to  recommend  the  book  to  the  dealer,  and  on  this  to  take  his  orders. 
It  is  better  to  find  the  rationale  of  this  custom  than  to  denounce  it  as  a  slight  put 
upon  literature.  The  cover  sells  the  book  to  the  dealer,  because  the  dealer  himself 
sells  the  book  to  his  customer  in  turn  very  largely  by  means  of  its  outside  dress. 
Many  a  book  which  has  doggedly  refused  to  move  from  the  bookseller's  shelf  has 
refused  in  the  most  lively  manner  to  stay  there  when  newly  set  out  in  some  jaunty 
fashion  of  bookbinding.  The  book  agent,  too,  lets  his  victim  feast  his  eyes  on  the 
fool's  gold  that  displays  itself  upon  the  broad  expanse  of  the  subscription  book, 
knowing  the  charm  that  lies  in  it. 

It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  bookbinders  and  the  public  will  ever  keep  very 
far  apart  in  their  taste,  but  it  is  nevertheless  possible  to  bind  books  in  accordance 
with  sound  taste,  and  to  catch  the  public  eye  also.  Moreover,  it  only  needs  a  little 
courage  on  the  part  of  a  publisher  to  make  him  a  reformer  in  good  taste,  in  a  mod- 
est way,  and  there  will  always  be  a  long  suffering  minority  who  will  hail  with  re- 
joicing any  recognition  of  their  very  reserved  rights.  The  first  consideration  and 
the  last  is  that  every  book  should  have  a  cover  which  bears  some  relation  to  the 
contents  of  the  book.  A  cook  book  and  a  theological  treatise  ought  not  to  make 
the  same  appeal  to  the  eye.  No  one  who  stops  to  think  would  deny  this  proposi- 
tion. But  there  are  more  subtle  distinctions  which  are  constantly  overlooked.  A 
book  in  pure  literature  should  not  be  mistaken  for  a  book  in  science,  yet  any  pre- 
vailing fashion,  as  for  instance  that  of  gold  lettering  and  black  arabesque  printing, 
will  probably  display  itself  in  both  cases  without  discrimination. 

To  begin  at  the  bottom,  the  board  used  in  cloth  covers  should  be  graded  in  its 
thickness  according  to  the  weight  of  the  book  which  it  has  to  sustain ;  it  is  a  piece 
of  deception  and  of  vulgarity  to  put  heavy  boards  with  beveled  edges  upon  thin 
books.  It  is  done  to  make  them  look  more  substantial,  and  so  warrant  a  higher 
price.  The  cloth  again  is  likely  to  run  upon  some  fancy  pattern  or  color,  which  is 
merely  novel  and  not  in  itself  good.  The  pattern  and  color  should  be  determined 
by  two  considerations,  the  nature  of  the  book  and  the  character  of  the  decoration 
to  be  used  on  this  ground.  A  dark  brown  is  suited  to  historical  works,  and  in  gen- 
eral to  books  of  dignity ;  blue  might  fairly  be  used  for  romance  and  poetry,  but, 
unfortunately,  blue  is  not  in  favor,  because  it  is  said  to  fade ;  this  may  be  true  of 
the  lighter  shades,  but  we  have  seen  smooth  blue  cloth-bound  books  that  look  as 
delightful  to  the  eye  as  they  did  years  ago.  Red,  especially  in  its  deeper  tones, 
suits  scientific  and  military  books  and  books  relating  to  the  mechanic  arts.  Black 
the  human  mind  instinctively  refers  to  theology,  and  it  is  curious  to  see  how  the 
books  which  of  late  years  have  undertaken  to  make  theology  popular  have  invari- 
ably dressed  themselves  in  the  more  sociable  brown  cloth.  White,  or  the  lightest 
shades  of  yellow,  belongs  to  the  fine  arts,  but  for  the  lightest  of  gay  reading  it  may 
well  be  used  if  covered  boldly  with  a  black  stamp  that  only  lets  the  light  through 
here  and  there.  Novels  and  easy-going  literature  generally  should  be  allowed  the 
buffs  and  grays,  while  travel  and  natural  history  claim  green.  The  mineral  colors 
as  a  rule  are  detestable.  We  hold  that  the  grain  of  the  cloth  should  obey  the  gen- 
eral law,  that  the  daintier  the  book  the  smoother  it  should  be,  books  that  require  a 
firmer  grasp  being  entitled  to  rough  grain. 

When  it  comes  to  the  matter  of  lettering  and  decoration  it  is  more  difficult  to  lay 
down  specific  rules.  Yet  here  also  there  are  certain  canons  which  ought  not  to  be 
disregarded.  The  lettering  on  our  books  is  almost  always  bad.  A  condensed  let- 
ter is  too  much  used,  owing  to  the  endeavor  to  make  narrow  backs  carry  broad 
titles.  We  would  simplify  the  titles  in  the  first  place,  then  use  as  round  a  letter 
as  possible,  and  avoid  imitation  of  fancy  types.  When  a  title,  however,  forms  part 
of  some  general  scheme  of  decoration,  the  artist  ought  to  make  the  lettering  also 
picturesque.  The  decoration  of  a  book  cover  most  certainly  ought  to  be  intrusted 
to  a  special  artist,  and  that  artist  ought  not  to  be  the  die-sinker,  but  a  workman  in 
the  bindery.  The  greatest  evil  we  have  to  contend  against  is  the  inveterate  habit 
of  our  Western  eye,  when  not  cultivated,  to  call  for  formal  symmetry.  It  is  ne- 
cessary now,  when  a  good  design  is  to  be  procured,  to  go  outside  of  the  craft. 

NEW-YORK  TRIBUNE. 


76 

BREVIER  No.  20.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.    55  LINES,  834  WORDS. 


OOKS  are  our  household  gods ;  and  we  cannot  prize  them  too  highly. 
They  are  the  only  gods  in  all  the  mythologies  that  are  ever  beautiful  and 
unchangeable;  for  they  betray  no  man,  and  love  their  lovers.  I  confess 
myself  an  idolator  of  this  literary  religion,  and  am  grateful  for  the  blessed 
ministry  of  books.  It  is  a  kind  of  heathenism  which  needs  no  missionary 
funds,  no  Bible  even,  to  abolish  it;  for  the  Bible  itself  caps  the  peak  of 
this  new  Olympus,  and  crowns  it  with  sublimity  and  glory.  Amongst  the  many  things 
we  have  to  be  thankful  for,  as  the  result  of  modern  discoveries,  surely  this  of  printed 
books  is  the  highest  of  all;  and  I,  for  one,  am  so  sensible  of  its  merits  that  I  never  think 
of  the  name  of  Gutenberg  without  feelings  of  veneration  and  homage. 

I  no  longer  wonder,  with  this  and  other  instances  before  me,  why  in  the  old  days  of 
reverence  and  worship  the  saints  and  benefactors  of  mankind  were  exalted  into  a  kind  of 
demi-gods,  and  had  worship  rendered  to  their  tombs  and  memories;  for  this  is  the  most 
natural,  as  well  as  the  most  touching,  of  all  human  generosities,  and  springs  from  the 
profoundest  depths  of  man's  nature.  Who  does  not  love  John  Gutenberg  ?  — the  man 
that  with  his  leaden  types  has  made  the  in-visible  thoughts  and  imaginations  of  the  soul 
visible  and  readable  to  all  and  by  all,  and  secured  for  the  worthy  a  double  immortality? 
The  birth  of  this  person  was  an  era  in  the  world's  history  second  to  none  save  that  of  the 
Advent  of  Christ.  The  dawn  of  printing  was  the  outburst  of  a  new  revelation,  which,  in 
its  ultimate  unfoldings  and  consequences,  are  alike  inconceivable  and  immeasurable. 

I  sometimes  amuse  myself  by  comparing  the  condition  of  the  people  before  the  time  of 
Gutenberg  with  their  present  condition,  that  I  may  fix  the  idea  of  the  value  and  blessed- 
ness of  books  more  vividly  in  my  mind.  It  is  an  occupation  not  without  profit,  and 
makes  me  grateful  and  contented  with  my  lot.  In  these  reading  days  one  can  hardly  con- 
ceive how  our  good  forefathers  managed  to  kill  their  superfluous  time,  or  how  at  least  they 
could  be  satisfied  to  kill  it  as  they  did.  A  life  without  books,  when  we  have  said  all  we 
can  about  the  honor  and  nobility  of  labor,  would  be  something  like  Heaven  without  God — 
scarcely  to  be  endured  by  an  immortal  nature.  And  yet  this  was  the  condition  of  things 
before  Gutenburg  made  his  far-sounding  metallic  tongues,  which  reach  through  all  the 
ages  that  have  since  passed  away,  and  make  us  glad  with  their  eloquence. 

Formerly  the  ecclesiastics  monopolized  the  literature  of  the  world ;  they  were  indeed  in 
many  cases  the  authors  and  transcribers  of  books,  and  we  are  indebted  to  them  for  the 
preservation  of  the  old  learning.  Now  every  mechanic  is  the  possessor  of  a  library,  and 
may  have  Plato  and  Socrates,  as  well  as  Chaucer  and  the  bards,  for  his  companions.  I 
call  this  a  heavenly  privilege,  and  the  greatest  of  all  known  miracles,  notwithstanding  it 
is  so  cheap  and  common.  Plato  died  above  two  thousand  years  ago,  yet  in  these  printed 
books  he  lives  and  speaks  forever.  There  is  no  death  to  thought,  which,  though  it  may 
never  be  imprisoned  in  lettered  language,  has  nevertheless  an  existence  and  propagative 
vitality  as  soon  as  it  is  uttered,  and  endures  from  generation  to  generation,  to  the  very 
end  of  the  world.  I  think  we  should  all  of  us  be  grateful  for  books:  they  are  our  best 
friends  and  most  faithful  companions.  They  instruct,  cheer,  elevate,  and  ennoble  us;  and 
in  whatever  mood  we  go  to  them,  they  never  frown  upon  us,  but  receive  us  with  cordial 
and  loving  sincerity:  neither  do  they  blab,  or  tell  tales  of  us  when  we  are  gone,  to  the 
next  comer;  but  honestly,  and  with  manly  frankness,  speak  to  our  hearts  in  admonition 
or  encouragement.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  other  men,  but  I  have  so  much  rever- 
ence for  these  silent  and  beautiful  friends  that  I  feel  in  them  to  have  an  immortal  and  di- 
vine possession,  which  is  more  valuable  to  me  than  many  estates  and  kingdoms.  The 
noise  and  babble  of  men  disturb  me  not  in  my  princely  domain,  enriched  by  the  presence 
of  so  many  high  and  royal  souls.  We  make  too  little  of  books,  and  have  quite  lost  the 
meaning  of  contemplation.  Our  times  are  too  busy,  too  exclusively  outward  in  their  ten- 
dency, and  men  have  lost  their  balance  in  the  whirlpools  of  commerce  and  the  fierce  tor- 
nadoes of  political  strife.  I  want  to  see  more  poise  in  men,  more  self-possession;  and 
these  can  only  be  gained  by  communion  with  books.  I  lay  stress  on  the  word  commun- 
ion. If  an  author  be  worth  anything,  he  is  worth  bottoming.  It  may  be  all  very  well  to 
skim  milk,  for  the  cream  lies  on  the  top ;  but  who  could  skim  Lord  Bacon  ? 

"JANUARY  SEARLE." 


77 
BREVIER  No.  u.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.    55  LINES,  777  WORDS. 


F  a  man  with  a  fondness  for  books  has  also  money  enough  to 
build  a  special  room  to  hold  them,  as  did  the  late  William  E.  Bur- 
ton to  contain  his  fine  theatrical  library,  he  ought  to  consult 
those  learned  in  the  law  of  book-protecting.  He  would  be  told 
that  the  library  should  have  very  thick  walls,  to  exclude  the 
damp  of  spring,  the  heat  of  summer,  and  the  cold  of  winter.  He 
would  be  informed  that  the  library  should  have  windows  only  on 
one  side,  and  that  these  windows  should  be  recessed,  that  the  sun  may  not  shine  in 
too  violently,  to  the  increase  of  moths  and  worms,  and  to  the  destruction  of  bind- 
ings. He  would  learn  that  the  library  should  not  be  a  corner,  and  that  it  should 
be  protected,  if  possible,  by  other  rooms  on  three  sides.  There  are  those  who 
advocate  a  library  wholly  without  windows,  and  lighted  only  by  a  skylight;  but 
this  is  too  severe  and  cheerless  an  arrangement  for  a  true  book-lover.  There 
should  be  no  carpet  on  the  floor,  for  carpets  hold  dust,  and  dust  is  a  great  danger 
to  books.  Rugs,  which  may  be  shaken  frequently,  are  sufficient  covering  for  the 
floor.  The  heating  arrangements,  an  open  fire-place  if  convenient,  should  be  ample 
enough  to  warm  the  room  without  making  it  hot ;  the  ordinary  hot-air  furnace  is 
very  injurious  to  books,  and  should  be  the  last  resort. 

These,  however,  are  prescriptions  for  those  who  carry  a  long  purse.  The  ordi- 
nary American  is  well  satisfied  if  he  can  give  up  any  corner  of  his  house  to  his 
books.  As  often  as  not  it  is  an  odd  room,  useless  for  any  other  purpose,  and  cheer- 
less at  all  times.  Now  this  ought  not  to  be.  The  library  should  be  a  room  into 
which  every  member  of  the  family  may  feel  glad  to  go.  It  ought  to  be  bright  and 
cheerful.  It  ought  to  be  easily  accessible.  It  ought  to  be  wanned  in  winter,  and 
protected  from  the  glare  of  the  sun  in  summer.  If  the  only  room  which  can  be  de- 
voted to  holding  books  is  too  small  to  hold  all  the  volumes  the  family  is  fortunate 
enough  to  own,  or  if  no  room  at  all  can  be  given  up  to  them  exclusively,  then  by  all 
means  let  the  books  overflow  the  house.  Some  authors  have  had  books  in  almost 
every  room  of  their  residence.  Southey  had  his  even  down  along  the  staircase, 
lining  its  walls,  and  Shelley  declares  that  Southey  did  not  like  his  venturing  to 
take  down  a  volume  as  he  descended  the  steps. 

.  There  are  book-cases  and  book-cases,  just  as  there  are  books  and  books.  There 
is  the  richly-carved  cabinet,  with  its  inlaid  panels,  its  elaborate  brass,  its  silken 
curtains,  its  beveled  glass,  its  chamois-covered  shelves,  its  tough  back  carefully 
protected  against  damp,  all  uniting  to  perfect  a  fit  tabernacle  for  priceless  volumes, 
so  old,  so  rare,  so  beautifully  bound,  as  to  be  absolutely  too  precious  for  human 
creatures'  daily  food.  There  is  the  single  board  held  against  the  side  of  a  shanty 
by  a  bit  of  string  and  a  nail  or  two,  and  supporting  a  worn  Emerson,  an  old  copy 
of  Franklin,  a  cheap  Shakespeare,  and  two  or  three  volumes  of  Cooper,  Scott,  or 
Longfellow,  battered  and  worn.  And  between  these  two  extremes  are  number- 
less intermediate  varieties.  There  is  the  sober  row  of  books  filling  the  top  of  the 
mantel-piece — a  bad  place  for  books,  as  the  warped  backs  and  cracking  covers  re- 
veal only  too  soon.  There  is  the  first  attempt  at  a  book-case,  the  box  once  filled 
with  soap  or  wine,  now  planed  and  stained  and  divided  in  two  by  a  transverse 
partition,  which  serves  as  a  shelf,  and  with  the  bottom  and  top  gives  accommo- 
dation for  three  rows  of  books ;  this  primitive  device  is  not  to  be  despised,  for  it 
will  afford  shelf  room  for  quite  fifty  volumes,  two-thirds  of  which  are  inside  the 
box,  and  are  thus  always  ready  to  move  and  easy  to  handle.  In  a  country  with  a 
population  as  nomadic  as  ours,  any  book-case,  however  elementary,  which  holds 
books  as  well  in  one  place  as  another,  and  as  well  when  moving  from  one  place  to 
another  as  when  settled,  and  which  saves  all  trouble  of  packing  before  transport 
and  of  rearrangement  afterward,  is  not  without  its  good  points ;  and  there  are 
many  worse  ways  of  providing  for  books  than  a  combination  —  by  means  of  a  few 
screws  —  of  half  a  dozen  such  boxes  into  a  large  stand.  A  Massachusetts  author 
keeps  his  entire  library  of  several  thousand  volumes  in  these  boxes. 


BREVIER  No.  15.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     54  LINES,  729  WORDS. 


E  not  only  set  before  ourselves  a  service  to 
God  in  preparing  volumes  of  new  books, 
but  we  exercise  the  duties  of  a  holy  piety 
if  we  first  handle  so  as  not  to  injure  them, 
then  return  them  to  their  proper  places 
and  commend  them  to  undenTmg  cus- 
tody, that  they  may  rejoice  in  their  purity 
while  held  in  the  hand  and  repose  in  se- 
curity when  laid  up  in  their  repositories. 
Truly,  next  to  the  vestments  and  the  ves- 
sels dedicated  to  the  body  of  the  Lord, 
holy  books  deserve  to  be  most  decorously 
handled  by  the  clergy,  upon  which  injury 
is  inflicted  as  often  as  they  presume  to 
touch  them  with  a  dirty  hand.  Where- 
for,  we  hold  it  expedient  to  exhort  stu- 
dents upon  various  negligences  which  can 
always  be  avoided. 

In  the  first  place,  then,  let  there  be  a  mature  decorum  in  opening  and  closing  of  volumes,  that 
they  may  neither  be  unclasped  with  precipitous  haste,  nor  thrown  aside  after  inspection  without 
being  duly  closed ;  for  it  is  necessary  that  a  book  should  be  much  more  carefully  preserved  than  a 
shoe.  But  school  folks  are  in  general  perversely  educated,  and,  if  not  restrained  by  the  rule  of 
their  superiors,  are  puffed  up  with  infinite  absurdities;  they  act  with  petulance,  swell  with  presump- 
tion, judge  of  everything  with  certainty,  and  are  unexperienced  in  anything. 

You  will  perhaps  see  a  stiff-necked  youth,  lounging  sluggishly  in  his  study,  while  the  frost 
pinches  him  in  winter  time;  oppressed  with  cold,  his  watery  nose  drops,  nor  does  he  take  the  trouble 
to  wipe  it  with  his  handkerchief  till  it  has  moistened  the  book  beneath  it  with  its  vile  dew.  For 
such  a  one  I  would  substitute  a  cobbler's  apron  in  the  place  of  his  book.  He  has  a  nail  like  a 
giant's,  with  which  he  points  out  the  place  of  any  pleasant  subject.  He  distributes  innumerable 
straws  in  various  places,  with  the  ends  in  sight,  that  he  may  recall  by  the  mark  what  his  mem- 
ory cannot  retain.  These  straws,  which  the  stomach  of  the  book  never  digests,  and  which  no- 
body takes  out,  at  first  distend  the  book  from  its  accustomed  closure,  and  being  carelessly  left  to 
oblivion,  at  last  become  putrid.  He  is  not  ashamed  to  eat  fruit  and  cheese  over  an  open  book, 
and  to  transfer  his  empty  cup  from  side  to  side  upon  it;  and  because  he  has  not  his  alms-bag  at 
hand,  he  leaves  the  rest  of  the  fragments  in  his  books.  He  never  ceases  to  chatter  with  eternal 
garrulity  to  his  companions;  and  while  he  adduces  a  multitude  of  reasons  void  of  physical  mean- 
ing, he  waters  the  book,  spread  out  upon  his  lap,  with  the  sputtering  of  his  saliva.  What  is 
worse,  he  next  reclines  with  his  elbows  on  the  book,  and  by  a  short  study  invites  a  long  nap; 
and  by  way  of  repairing  the  wrinkles,  he  twists  back  the  margins  of  the  leaves,  to  the  no  small 
detriment  of  the  volume.  He  goes  out  in  the  rain,  and  now  flowers  make  their  appearance  upon 
our  soil.  Then  the  scholar  we  are  describing,  the  neglecter  rather  than  the  inspector  of  books, 
stuffs  his  volume  with  firstling  violets,  roses,  and  quadrifoils.  He  will  next  apply  his  wet  hands, 
oozing  with  sweat,  to  turning  over  the  volumes,  then  beat  the  white  parchment  all  over  with  his 
dusty  gloves,  or  hunt  over  the  page,  line  by  line,  with  his  forefinger  covered  with  dirty  leather. 
Then,  as  the  flea  bites,  the  holy  book  is  thrown  aside,  which,  however,  is  scarcely  closed  in  a 
month,  and  is  so  swelled  with  dust  that  it  will  not  yield  to  the  efforts  of  the  closer. 

And  impudent  boys  are  to  be  specially  restrained  from  meddling  with  books,  who,  when  they 
are  learning  to  draw  the  forms  of  letters,  if  copies  of  the  most  beautiful  books  are  allowed  them, 
begin  to  become  incongruous  annotators,  and  wherever  they  perceive  the  broadest  margin  about 
the  text,  they  furnish  it  with  a  monstrous  alphabet,  or  their  unchastened  pen  immediately  pre- 
sumes to  draw  any  other  frivolous  thing  whatever  that  occurs  to  their  imagination.  There  are 
also  certain  thieves  who  enormously  dismember  books  by  cutting  off  the  side  margins  for  letter- 
paper  (leaving  only  the  letters  or  text),  or  the  fly-leaves  put  in  for  the  preservation  of  the  book, 
which  sort  of  sacrilege  ought  to  be  prohibited  under  a  threat  of  anathema. 

RICHARD  DE  BURY. 


79 
BREVIER  LIGHT  FACE.     LEADED.    50  LINES,  497  WORDS. 


HERE  is  some  comfort  for  those  who,  like  the 
essayist  Henry  Rogers  for  example,  look  with 
despair  upon  the  accumulation  of  hooks,  and 
with  hopefulness  in  some  overruling  fate  which 
disposed  of  the  Alexandria  library.  There  is  an 
enormous  mass  no  doubt  of  "books  in  the  world, 
hut  when  we  subtract  the  books  to  be  read  from 
the  books  which  simply  serve  some  temporary  purpose,  the 
remainder  is  small  enough  to  restore  cheerfulness,  and  when 
again  we  divide,  setting  apart  those  books  which  are  them- 
selves the  origin  and  cause  of  other  books,  there  is  hope  even 
for  the  man  of  business,  that  in  his  leisure  moments  he  may 
read  and  enjoy  them  all. 

The  practical  use  to  which  every  student  or  reader  may  put 
this  discovery,  is  in  the  right  he  may  claim  to  select  his  read- 
ing. Since  the  mere  fact  of  something  being  in  print  lays  no 
compulsion  upon  him  to  read  it,  for  there  is  a  splendid  impos- 
sibility of  his  reading  everything,  he  may  have  the  most 
dense  ignorance  of  the  great  mass  of  what  goes  by  the  name 
of  literature,  and  retain  his  self-respect.  Some  idle  reader  of 
advertisements  and  book-notices  saunters  along  with  us  as 
we  go  to  our  work  and  speaks  of  this  or  that  new  book,  and 
we  may  bravely  admit  our  utter  ignorance  of  it.  We  need 
give  ourselves  no  more  concern  about  it  than  we  do  about 
the  young  women  who  comb  their  hair  and  shake  bottles  in 
advertisements  of  hair  oil.  Yet  it  requires  oftentimes  no 
small  courage  to  be  ready  with  our  ignorance.  It  Is  like  the 
mention  of  a  name  to  us  in  conversation  with  a  friend,  who 
appeals  to  us  for  a  sort  of  moral  support  as  he  is  about  to  tell 
a  story:  You  know ?  We  gently  incline  our  head,  try- 
ing not  to  commit  ourselves  to  a  plump  acknowledgment.  It 
is  not  of  the  slightest  consequence  to  the  story,  but  we  are  so 
anxious  to  oblige  a  friend.  And  in  discourse  of  many  books 
we  are  apt  to  give  tacit  admission  of  an  acquaintance  with 
them.  Yes,  we  have  merely  seen  it,  we  say,  and  bow — on  the 
counter;  we  mentally  explain,  but  it  sounds  as  if  we  had 
glanced  through  it  at  least. 

The  dispersion  of  literature  by  the  manifold  instruments  of 
books,  magazines,  and  papers,  and  the  universal  spread  of  a 
common-school  education,  have  conspired  to  cheapen  not  the 
real  value  of  literature,  but  its  apparent  value.  Every  one 
reads — nearly  every  one  writes.  Books  that  have  cost  labor 
are  condensed  into  a  review  article,  strained  into  a  weekly 
journal,  scattered  in  short  paragraphs  through  the  daily  pa- 
pers. Gossip  about  authors,  tattle  about  their  work,  vulgar 
comparisons,  and  the  easy  praise  of  good-natured,  hard- worked 
noticers,  help  to  make  the  act  of  reading  an  indolent  diver- 
sion. Printing  caused  writing,  and  the  awakening  of  human 
thought,  which  was  contemporaneous  with  the  invention  of 
printing,  found  other  forms  of  activity  also. 


8o 
ELZEVIR  BODY  8.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.    49  LINES,  707  WORDS. 


B.?y  UT  books  have  the  advantage  in  many  other  respects :  you  may  read 
I   an  able  preacher,  when  you  have  but  a  mean  one  to  hear.     Every 
1    congregation  cannot  hear  the  most  judicious  or  powerful  preachers ; 
i   but  every  single  person  may  read  the  books  of  the  most  powerful 
I   and  judicious.     Preachers  maybe  silenced  or  banished,  when  books 
muama&imuBJB  may  be  at  hand  :  books  may  be  kept  at  a  smaller  charge  than  preach- 
ers: we  may  choose  books  which  treat  of  that  very  subject  which  we  desire  to  hear 
of,  but  we  cannot  choose  what  subject  the  preacher  shall  treat  of.     Books  we  may 
have  at  hand  every  day  and  hour,  when  we  can  have  sermons  but  seldom,  and  at  set 
times.     If  sermons  be  forgotten,  they  are  gone.     But  a  book  we  may  read  over  and 
over  until  we  remember  it ;  and,  if  we  forget  it,  we  may  again  peruse  it  at  our  pleas- 
ure, or  at  our  leisure.     So  that  good  books  are  a  very  great  mercy  to  the  world. 

As  for  play-books,  and  romances,  and  idle  tales,  I  have  already  shewed  in  my 
"Book  of  Self-Denial"  how  pernicious  they  are,  especially  to  youth,  and  to  frothy, 
empty,  idle  wits,  that  know  not  what  a. man  is,  nor  what  he  hath  to  do  in  the  world. 
They  are  powerful  baits  of  the  devil,  to  keep  more  necessary  things  out  of  their 
minds,  and  better  books  out  of  their  hands,  and  to  poison  the  mind  so  much  the  more 
dangerously,  as  they  are  read  with  more  delight  and  pleasure :  and  to  fill  the  minds 
of  sensual  people  with  such  idle  fumes  and  intoxicating  fancies  as  may  divert  them 
from  the  serious  thoughts  of  their  salvation,  and  (which  is  no  small  loss)  to  rob  them 
of  that  precious  time  which  was  given  them  for  more  important  business,  and  which 
they  will  wish  and  wish  again  at  the  last  that  they  had  spent  more  wisely. 

Reading,  with  most  people,  doth  more  conduce  to  knowledge  than  hearing  doth, 
and  with  very  many  it  doth  more  than  hearing  to  move  the  heart  ;  because  lively 
books  may  be  more  easily  had  than  lively  preachers. 

The  truth  is,  it  is  not  the  reading  of  many  books  which  is  necessary  to  make  a 
man  wise  or  good ;  but  the  well-reading  of  a  few,  could  he  be  sure  to  have  the  best. 
And  yet  the  reading  of  as  many  as  is  possible  tendeth  much  to  the  increase  of  knowl- 
edge, and  were  the  best  way,  if  greater  matters  were  not  that  way  unavoidably  to  be 
omitted ;  life  therefore  being  short,  and  work  great,  and  knowledge  being  for  love 
and  practice,  and  no  man  having  leisure  to  learn  all  things,  a  wise  man  must  be  sure 
to  lay  hold  on  that  which  is  most  useful.  And  the  very  subjects  that  are  to  be  un- 
derstood are  numerous,  and  few  men  write  of  all.  And  on  the  same  subject  men 
have  several  modes  of  writing ;  as  one  excelleth  in  accurate  method,  and  another  in 
clear,  convincing  argumentation,  and  another  in  an  affectionate,  taking  style:  and  the 
book  that  doth  one  cannot  well  do  the  other,  because  the  same  style  will  not  do  it. 

Great  store  of  all  sorts  of  good  books  (through  the  great  mercy  of  God)  are  com- 
mon among  us :  he  that  cannot  buy,  may  borrow.  But  take  heed  that  you  lose  not 
your  time  in  reading  romances,  play-books,  vain  jests,  seducing  or  reviling  disputes, 
or  needless  controversies.  A  course  of  reading  Scripture  and  good  books  will  be 
many  ways  to  your  great  advantage.  It  will,  above  all  other  ways,  increase  your 
knowledge.  It  will  help  your  resolutions  and  holy  affections,  and  direct  your  lives. 
It  will  make  your  lives  pleasant.  The  knowledge,  the  usefulness,  and  the  variety  to 
be  found  in  these  works  will  be  a  continual  recreation  to  you,  unless  you  are  utterly 
besotted  or  debauched.  The  pleasure  of  this  will  turn  you  from  your  fleshly  pleas- 
ures. You  will  have  no  need  to  go  for  delight  to  a  play-house  or  a  drinking-house. 
It  will  keep  you  from  the  sinful  loss  of  time,  by  idleness  or  unprofitable  employment 
or  pastimes.  You  will  cast  away  cards  and  dice  when  you  find  the  sweetness  of  youth- 
ful learning. 

RICHARD  BAXTER. 


8i 
BREVIER  KXPANDKD.    TRIPLE  LEADED.    36  LINES,  295  WORDS. 

DEENESS  is  a  disease  which  must  be 
combated;  but  I  Avould  not  advise  a  rigid 
adherence  to  a  particular  plan  of  study. 
I  myself  have  never  persisted  in  any  plan 
for  two  days  together.  A  man  ought  to  read  just 
as  inclination  leads  him  ;  for  what  he  reads  as  a 
task  will  do  him  little  good."  A  young  man 
should  read  five  hours  in  the  day,  and  so  may 
acquire  a  great  deal  of  knowledge.  .  .  . 

He  then  took  occasion  to  enlarge  on  the  advan- 
tage of  reading,  and  combated  the  idle,  superficial 
notion  that  knowledge  enough  may  be  acquired 
in  conversation.  "The  foundation,"  said  he,  "must 
be  laid  by  reading."  General  principles  must  be 
had  from  books,  which,  however,  must  be  brought 
to  the  test  of  real  life.  In  conversation  you  never 
get  a  system.  What  is  said  upon  a  subject  is  to 
be  gathered  from  a  hundred  people.  The  parts 
of  a  truth  which  a  man  gets  thus  are  at  such  a 
distance  from  each  other  that  he  never  attains  a 
satisfactory  view.  .  .  . 

He  said  that  for  general  improvement  a  man 
should  read  whatever  his  immediate  inclination 
prompts  him  to;  though  to  be  wise,  if  a  man 
have  a  science  to  learn,  he  must  regularly  and 
resolutely  advance.  He  added,  "What  we  read 
with  inclination  works  a  much  stronger  impres- 
sion." If  we  read  without  inclination,  half  the 
mind  is  employed  in  fixing  the  attention;  so 
there  is  but  one-half  to  be  employed  on  what  we 
read.  He  told  us  he  read  Fielding's  "Amelia" 
through  without  stopping.  He  said,  "if  a  man 
begins  to  read  in  the  middle  of  a  book,  and  feels 
an  inclination  to  go  on,  let  him  not  quit  it  to  go 
to  the  beginning.  He  may  not  feel  again  the 
inclination." 


BOSWELL,S  M8im  JOHKSON  ,, 


82 
BREVIER  No.  20.     LEADED.     50  LINES,  734  WORDS. 


POET  so  full  of  zest  as  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  is  wont  to  live  his 
life,  rather  than  to  scorn  delights  in  service  of  the  thankless  muse.  Dr. 
Holmes's  easy-going  method,  and  a  sensible  estimate  of  his  own  powers, 
have  defined  the  limits  of  his  zeal.  His  poetry  was  and  is,  like  his  humor, 
the  overflow  of  a  nervous,  original,  decidedly  intellectual  nature ;  of  spark- 
ling life,  no  less,  in  which  he  gathered  the  full  worth  of  heyday  experiences. 
See  that  glimpse  of  Paris,  a  student's  pencilled  sketch,  with  Clemence 
tripping  down  the  Rue  de  Seine.  It  is  but  a  bit,  yet  through  its  atmosphere  we  make  out 
a  poet  who  cared  as  much  for  the  sweets  of  the  poetic  life  as  for  the  work  that  was  its 
product.  He  had  through  it  all  a  Puritan  sense  of  duty,  and  the  worldly  wisdom  that  goes 
with  a  due  perception  of  values,  and  he  never  lost  sight  of  his  practical  career.  His  pro- 
fession, after  all,  was  what  he  took  most  seriously.  Accepting,  then,  with  hearty  thanks, 
his  care-dispelling  rhyme  and  reason,  pleased  often  by  the  fancies  which  he  tenders  in  lieu 
of  imagination  and  power,  we  go  through  the  collection  of  his  verse,  and  see  that  it  has 
amounted  to  a  great  deal  in  the  course  of  a  bustling  fifty  years.  These  numerous  pieces 
divide  themselves,  as  to  form,  into  two  classes  —  lyrics  and  poetic  essays  in  solid  couplet- 
verse  ;  as  to  purpose,  into  the  lighter  songs  that  may  be  sung,  and  the  nobler  numbers, 
part  lyrical,  part  the  poems,  both  gay  and  sober,  delivered  at  frequent  intervals  during  his 
pleasant  career.  In  the  years  that  followed  his  graduation,  while  practicing  in  Boston  and 
afterward  a  lecturer  at  Dartmouth,  he  was  summoned,  nothing  loath,  whenever  a  dinner- 
song  or  witty  ballad  was  needed  at  home,  and  calls  from  transpontine  and  barbaric  regions 
came  fast  upon  him  as  his  popularity  grew.  Here  are  some  forty  printed  poems,  which 
cheered  that  lucky  class  of  '29,  and  how  many  others  went  before  and  after  them  we  know 
not.  He  is  among  college  poets  the  paragon,  and  is  surely  the  ideal  civic  bard. 

The  Autocrat  is  an  essential  part  of  Boston,  like  the  crier  who  becomes  so  identified 
with  a  court  that  it  seems  as  if  Justice  must  change  her  quarters  when  he  is  gone.  The 
Boston  of  Holmes,  distinct  as  his  own  personality,  certainly  must  go  with  him.  Much 
will  become  new,  when  old  things  pass  away  with  the  generation  of  a  wit  who  made 
a  jest  that  his  State  House  was  the  hub  of  the  solar  system,  and  in  his  heart  believed  it. 
The  time  is  ended  when  we  can  be  so  local :  this  civic  faith  was  born  before  the  age  of 
steam,  and  cannot  outlast,  save  as  a  tradition,  the  advent  of  electric  motors  and  octuple- 
sheets.  Towns  must  lose  their  individuality,  even  as  men  —  who  yearly  differ  less  from 
one  another.  Yet  the  provincialism  of  Boston  has  been  its  charm,  and  its  citizens,  striv- 
ing to  be  cosmopolitan,  in  time  may  repent  the  effacement  of  their  birth-mark. 

A  phantasmagory  of  the  songs,  odes,  and  rhymed  addresses  of  so  many  years ;  col- 
legiate and  civic  glories ;  tributes  to  princes,  embassies,  generals,  heroes  ;  welcomes  to 
novelists  and  poets  ;  eulogies  of  the  dead  ;  verse  inaugural  and  dedicatory  ;  stanzas  read 
at  literary  breakfasts,  New  England  dinners,  municipal  and  bucolic  feasts ;  odes  natal, 
nuptial,  and  mortuary  ;  metrical  delectations  offered  to  his  brothers  of  the  medical  craft  to 
which  he  is  so  loyal — bristling  with  scorn  of  quackery  and  challenge  to  opposing  systems 
—  not  only  equal  to  all  occasions,  but  growing  better  with  their  increase.  The  half  of  his 
early  collections  is  made  up  from  efforts  of  this  sort,  and  they  constitute  four-fifths  of  his 
verse  during  the  last  thirty  years. 

Now,  what  has  carried  Holmes  so  bravely  through  all  this,  if  not  a  special  kind  of  mas- 
terhood,  an  individuality,  humor,  touch,  that  we  shall  not  see  again  ?  Thus  we  come,  in 
fine,  to  be  sensible  of  the  distinctive  gift  of  this  poet.  The  achievement  for  which  he  must 
be  noted  is,  that  in  a  field  the  most  arduous  and  least  attractive  he  should  bear  himself 
with  such  zest  and  fitness  as  to  be  numbered  among  poets,  and  should  do  honor  to  an 
office  which  they  chiefly  dread  or  mistrust,  and  which  is  little  calculated  to  excite  their 
inspiration. 

E.  C.  STEDMAN,  "Poets  of  America." 


83 
BREVIER  No.  u.     LEADED.     50  LINES,  673  WORDS. 


* 


REASONABLE  number  of  good  books  for  boys  is  not  to  be  had. 
Many  of  the  old  tales  are  out  of  point.  Most  of  the  new  ones  are 
trash.  Some  of  the  trash  is  religious  in  tone.  Much  more  of  it  is 
of  the  "Old  Sleuth"  variety  of  reading.  A  part  of  it  follows  the 
"Jack  Harkaway"  style  of  impossible  schoolboy  feats.  But  all  of 
it  is  useless  from  a  literary,  teaching,  or  amusing  standpoint. 

Some  years  ago  counterfeit  bank  notes  were  common  throughout  the  country. 
People  looked  on  every  note  they  received  with  great  suspicion.  Many  of  these 
notes  were  accepted  at  a  heavy  discount.  Only  legal  tender  notes  passed  without 
question  at  the  full  standard  of  value.  It  is  a  pity  that  there  is  no  way  of  dis- 
tinguishing good  books  from  bad  ones,  like  the  old  tests  employed  to  find  out 
which  bank  notes  were  good  and  which  were  bad.  If  there  were,  books  might 
be  stamped  at  their  face  value  and  readers  might  buy  them  accordingly.  As  it 
is,  counterfeits  of  books  are  very  plentiful,  and  only  the  practiced  eye  can  detect 
the  fraud  that  lies  under  the  respectable  cover. 

In  former  days,  readers  were  much  fewer  than  at  present.  The  writer  found 
that -publishers  would  only  accept  his  work  after  the  most  careful  scrutiny.  Good 
fiction,  especially,  was  not  buried  under  a  mass  of  rubbish  as  it  is  at  present.  It 
is  impossible  for  even  a  man  whose  sole  business  in  life  is  to  write  about  novels, 
to  keep  track  of  all  the  stories,  good  and  bad,  now  annually  published. 

Much  of  this  superabundance  of  fiction  is  due  to  the  financial  needs  of  a  few 
writers  of  stories  who  have  turned  their  profession  into  a  trade.  After  writing 
a  few  books  with  care,  and  receiving  public  appreciation  for  the  doing  of  it,  they 
began  to  use  their  names  as  a  kind  of  trade  mark  and  to  prostitute  their  talents 
to  rehashing  their  own  first  and  best  work.  So  far  have  such  schemes  been  devel- 
oped that  several  catch  names  are  owned  by  New -York  publishers  of  cheap  fiction, 
and  any  modern  Grub-street  hack  may  be  employed  to  write  under  such  titles ;  the 
real  author  receives  remuneration  for  his  work,  and  waives  the  "glory." 

The  primary  object  of  books  in  a  boy's  hands  is  amusement.  He  does  not  care 
a  peanut  for  the  instruction  a  book  may  contain.  If  he  is  informed  that  it  will 
do  him  good,  he  will  most  probably  cease  reading  it  at  once.  But  while  the  dime- 
novel  variety  of  reading  induces  a  morbid  craving  for  more  that  is  never  satisfied, 
good  books  are  like  a  healthy  meal  that  comes  in  its  due  season.  A  boy  may  have 
his  good  impulses  increased  by  reading  good  books,  just  as  they  will  be  depraved 
by  reading  bad  ones.  All  kinds  of  seed  grow  in  a  boy's  fertile  mind. 

Modern  writers  make  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  boys  are  not,  in  their  way, 
as  great  critics  as  grown  persons.  They  know  a  good  book  when  they  read  it. 
Witness  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  "Treasure  Island"  and  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich's 
"Story  of  a  Bad  Boy."  Indeed,  the  latter  story  seems  nearer  to  the  genuine  univer- 
sal American  boy's  heart  than  any  other  book  written.  Just  as  the  Viking  blood 
of  British  boys  makes  them  like  "Robinson  Crusoe"  and  wish  to  be  sailors,  so  the 
"Story  of  a  Bad  Boy"  impels  the  American  boy  to  "  do  things." 

Boys  will  have  good  books  when  their  parents  exercise  an  intelligent  supervision 
in  the  selection  of  them.  The  Free  Circulating  Library  and  its  branches  and  the 
Mercantile  Library  have  done  excellent  work  in  this  direction.  But  boys  want 
healthier,  stronger  food  than  the  libraries  will  grant  them  without  their  parents' 
cooperation.  Any  one  who  takes  an  interest  in  boys'  reading  should  examine  the 
catalogue  of  the  juvenile  department  of  the  Mercantile  Library.  It  is  excellent, 
no  doubt,  but  the  omissions  and  retentions  are  a  chart  of  what  the  average  parent 
thinks  a  boy  should  read. 

NEW -YORK  SUN. 


84 
MINION  No.  20.     SOLID.     71  LINES,  1118  WORDS. 


JHARLES  LAMB  left  us  many  bright  paragraphs  helpful  to  book-lovers.  In  an 
essay  on  "The  Two  Races  of  Men  "  is  this  passage:  "To  one  like  Elia,  whose 
treasures  are  rather  cased  in  leather  covers  than  closed  in  iron  coffers,  there  is 
a  class  of  alienators  more  formidable  than  that  which  I  have  touched  upon :  I 
mean  your  borrowers  of  books  —  those  mutilators  of  collections,  spoilers  of  the 
symmetry  of  shelves,  and  creators  of  odd  volumes.  That  foul  gap  in  the  bottom 
shelf  facing  you,  like  a  great  eye-tooth  knocked 'out  —  (you  are  now  with  me  in 

my  little  back  study  in  Bloomsbury,  reader)  —  with  the  huge  Switzer-like  tomes 

on  each  side,  once  held  the  tallest  of  my  folios,  'Opera  Bonaventurae,'  choice  and  massy  di- 
vinity, to  which  its  two  supporters  showed  but  as  dwarfs.  That  Comberbatch  [Coleridge]  ab- 
stracted upon  the  faith  of  a  theory  he  holds,  which  is  more  easy,  I  confess,  for  me  to  suffer  by 
than  to  refute,  namely,  that  'the  title  to  property  in  a  book  [my  Bonaventure,  for  instance]  is 
in  exact  ratio  to  the  claimant's  powers  of  understanding  and  appreciating  the  same."  Should 
he  go  on  acting  upon  this  theory,  which  of  our  shelves  is  safe?  The  slight  vacuum  in  the  left- 
hand  case,  two  shelves  from  the  ceiling,  — scarcely  distinguishable  but  by  the  quick  eye  of  a 
loser, — was  whilom  the  commodious  resting-place  of  Brown  on  Urn  Burial.  C.  will  hardly  al- 
lege that  he  knows  more  about  that  treatise  than  1  do,  who  introduced  it  to  him,  and  was  in- 
deed the  first  of  the  moderns  to  discover  its  beauties;  — but  so  have  I  known  a  foolish  lover  to 
praise  his  mistress  in  the  presence  of  a  rival  more  qualified  than  himself  to  carry  her  off.  Just 
below,  Dodsley's  dramas  want  their  fourth  volume,  where  Vittoria  Corombona  is.  The  re- 
mainder nine  are  as  distasteful  as  Priam's  refuse  sons,  when  the  Fates  borrowed  Hector.  Here 
stood  the  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  in  sober  state.  There  loitered  the  Complete  Angler  ;  and 
in  yonder  nook  John  Buncle,  a  widower  volume,  with  '  eyes  closed,'  mourns  his  ravished  mate." 

From  "  Detached  Thoughts  on  Books  and  Reading  "  these  extracts  are  taken  :  "I  have  no 
repugnances.  Shaftesbury  is  not  too  genteel  for  me,  nor  Jonathan  Wild  too  low.  I  can  read 
anything  which  I  call  a  book.  There  are  things  in  that  shape  which  I  cannot  allow  for  such. 
In  this  catalogue  of  books  which  are  no  books  I  reckon  Court  Calendars,  Directories,  Pocket 
Books,  Draught  Boards  bound  and  lettered  at  the  back,  Scientific  Treatises,  Almanacks,  Stat- 
utes at  Large,  the  works  of  Hume,  Gibbon,  Robertson,  Beattie,  Soame  Tenyns,  and,  generally, 
all  those  volumes  which  '  no  gentleman's  library  should  be  without,'  the  Histories  of  Flavius 
Josephus,  and  Paley's  Moral  Philosophy.  With  these  exceptions,  I  can  read  almost  anything. 
I  bless  my  stars  for  a  taste  so  catholic,  so  unexcluding. 

"I  confess  that  it  moves  my  spleen  to  see  these  things  in  books'  clothing  perched  upon 
shelves,  like  false  saints,  intruders  into  the  sanctuary,  thrusting  out  the  legitimate  occupants. 
To  reach  down  a  well-bound  semblance  of  a  volume,  and  hope  it  some  kind-hearted  play-book, 
then,  opening  what  '  seem  its  leaves,'  to  come  bolt  upon  a  withering  Population  Essay.  To 
expect  a  Steele,  or  a  Farquhar,  and  find — Adam  Smith.  To  view  a  well-arranged  assort- 
ment of  block-headed  Encyclopedias  set  out  in  an  array  of  russia  or  morocco,  when  a  tithe  of 
that  good  leather  would  comfortably  re-clothe  my  shivering  folios  ;  would  renovate  Paracelsus 
himself,  and  enable  old  Raymund  Lully  to  look  like  himself  again  in  the  world.  I  never  see 
these  impostors  but  I  long  to  strip  them,  to  warm  my  ragged  veterans  in  their  spoils. 

"I  am  not  much  a  friend  to  out-of-doors  reading.  I  cannot  settle  my  spirits  to  it.  I  knew 
a  Unitarian  minister,  who  was  generally  to  be  seen  iipon  Snow-hill,  between  the  hours  of  ten 
and  eleven  in  the  morning,  studying  a  volume  of  Lardner.  I  own  this  to  have  been  a  strain 
of  abstraction  beyond  my  reach.  I  used  to  admire  how  he  sidled  along,  keeping  clear  of  sec- 
ular contacts.  An  illiterate  encounter  with  a  bread  basket  would  have  quickly  put  to  flight 
all  the  theology  I  am  master  of,  and  have  left  me  worse  than  indifferent  to  the  five  points. 

"There  is  a  class  of  street-readers  whom  I  can  never  contemplate  without  affection  — the 
poor  gentry,  who,  not  having  wherewithal  to  buy  or  hire  a  book,  filch  a  little  learning  at  the 
open  stalls;  the  owner,  with  his  hard  eye,  casting  envious  looks  at  them  all  the  while,  and 
thinking  when  they  will  have  done.  Venturing  tenderly,  page  after  page,  expecting  every  mo- 
ment when  he  shall  interpose  his  interdict,  and  yet  unable  to  deny  themselves  the  gratification, 

they  'snatch  a  fearful  joy.'  Martin  B ,  in  this  way,  by  daily  fragments,  got  through  two 

volumes  of  Clarissa,  when  the  stall-keeper  damped  his  laudable  ambition  by  asking  him 
whether  he  meant  to  purchase  the  work.  M.  declares  that  under  no  circumstances  of  his  life 
did  he  ever  peruse  a  book  with  half  the  satisfaction  which  he  took  in  those  uneasy  snatches." 

From  "Old  China"  :  "  Do  you  remember  the  brown  suit  which  you  made  to  hang  upon  you 
till  all  your  friends  cried  shame  upon  you,  it  grew  so  threadbare  —  and  all  because  of  that 
folio  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  which  you  dragged  home  late  at  night  from  Barker's  in  Covent 
Garden  ?  Do  you  remember  how  we  eyed  it  for  weeks  before  we  could  make  up  our  minds  to 
the  purchase,  and  had  not  come  to  a  determination  till  it  was  near  ten  o'clock  of  the  Saturday 
night,  when  you  set  off  from  Islington,  fearing  you  should  be  too  late  —  and  when  the  old  book- 
seller with  some  grumbling  opened  his  shop,  and  by  the  twinkling  taper  (for  he  was  setting 
bedwards)  lighted  out  the  relic  from  his  dusty  treasures  —  and  when  you  lugged  it  home,  wishing 
it  were  twice  as  cumbersome  —  and  when  you  presented  it  to  me — and  when  we  were  exploring 
the  perfectness  of  it  ('collating'  you  called  it)  —  and  while  I  was  repairing  some  of  the  loose 
leaves  with  paste,  which  your  impatience  would  not  suffer  to  be  left  till  daybreak  —  was  there 
no  pleasure  in  being  a  poor  man  ?  or  can  those  neat  black  clothes  which  you  wear  now,  and 
are  so  careful  to  keep  brushed  since  we  have  become  rich  and  finical,  give  you  half  the  honest 
vanity  with  which  you  flaunted  it  about  in  that  over-worn  suit  for  four  or  five  weeks  longer  than 
you  should  have  done,  to  pacify  your  conscience  for  the  mighty  sum  which  you  had  lavished  ?  " 


85 

MINION  No.  n.     SOLID.     71  LINES,  1094  WORDS. 


WILLINGLY  concede  all  that  you  say  against  fashionable  society  as  a 
whole.  It  is,  as  you  say,  frivolous,  bent  on  amusement,  incapable  of  at- 
tention sufficiently  prolonged  to  grasp  any  serious  subject,  and  liable  both 
to  confusion  and  inaccuracy  in  the  ideas  which  it  hastily  forms  or  easily 
receives.  You  do  right,  assuredly,  not  to  let  it  waste  your  most  valuable 
hours,  but  I  believe  also  that  you  do  wrong  in  keeping  out  of  it  alto- 
gether. The  society  which  seems  so  frivolous  in  masses  contains  indi- 
vidual members  who,  if  you  knew  them  better,  would  be  able  and  willing 
to  render  you  the  most  efficient  intellectual  help,  and  you  miss  this  help 
by  restricting  yourself  exclusively  to  books.  Nothing  can  replace  the  conversation  of  living 
men  and  women ;  not  even  the  richest  literature  can  replace  it. 

The  solitude  which  is  really  injurious  is  the  severance  from  all  who  are  capable  of  under- 
standing us.  Painters  say  that  they  cannot  work  effectively  for  very  long  together  when 
separated  from  the  society  of  artists,  and  that  they  must  return  to  London,  or  Paris,  or 
Rome,  to  avoid  an  oppressive  feeling  of  discouragement  which  paralyzes  their  productive 
energy.  Authors  are  more  fortunate,  because  all  cultivated  people  are  society  for  them ; 
yet  even  authors  lose  strength  and  agility  of  thought  when  too  long  deprived  of  a  genial 
intellectual  atmosphere.  In  the  country  you  meet  with  cultivated  individuals ;  but  we  need 
more  than  this,  we  need  those  general  conversations  in  which  every  speaker  is  worth  lis- 
tening to.  The  life  most  favorable  to  culture  would  have  its  times  of  open  and  equal  inter- 
course with  the  best  minds,  and  also  its  periods  of  retreat.  My  ideal  would  be  a  house  in 
London, —  not  far  from  one  or  two  houses  that  are  so  full  of  light  and  warmth  that  it  is  a 
liberal  education  to  have  entered  them, —  and  a  solitary  tower  on  some  island  of  the  Heb- 
rides, with  no  companions  but  the  sea-gulls  and  the  thundering  surges  of  the  Atlantic. 
One  such  island  I  know  well,  and  it  is  before  my  mind's  eye,  clear  as  a  picture,  while  I  am 
writing.  It  stands  in  the  very  entrance  of  a  fine  salt  water  loch,  rising  above  two  hundred 
feet  out  of  the  water  and  setting  its  granite  front  steep  against  the  western  ocean.  When 
the  evenings  are  clear  you  can  see  Staffa  and  lona  like  blue  clouds  between  you  and  the 
sunset ;  and  on  your  left,  close  at  hand,  the  granite  hills  of  Mull,  with  Ulva  to  the  right 
across  the  narrow  strait.  It  was  the  dream  of  my  youth  to  build  a  tower  there,  with  three 
or  four  little  rooms  in  it,  and  walls  as  strong  as  a  lighthouse.  There  have  been  more  fool- 
ish dreams,  and  there  have  been  less  competent  teachers  than  the  tempests  that  would  have 
roused  me  and  the  calms  that  would  have  brought  me  peace.  If  any  serious  thought,  if 
any  noble  inspiration  might  have  been  hoped  for,  surely  it  would  have  been  there,  where 
only  the  clouds  and  waves  were  transient,  but  the  ocean  before  me,  and  the  stars  above, 
and  the  mountains  on  either  hand,  were  emblems  and  evidences  of  eternity. 

Let  me  recommend  certain  precautions  which  taken  together  are  likely  to  keep  you  safe. 
Care  for  the  physical  health  in  the  first  place,  for  if  there  is  a  morbid  mind  the  bodily  or- 
gans are  not  doing  their  work  as  they  ought  to  do  it.  Next,  for  the  mind  itself,  I  would 
heartily  recommend  hard  study,  really  hard  study,  taken  very  regularly  but  in  very  mod- 
erate quantity.  The  effect  of  it  on  the  mind  is  as  bracing  as  that  of  cold  water  on  the  body, 
but  as  you  ought  not  to  remain  too  long  in  the  cold  bath,  so  it  is  dangerous  to  study  hard 
more  than  a  short  time  every  day.  Do  some  work  that  is  very  difficult  (such  as  reading 
some  language  that  you  have  to  study  out  d  coups  de  dictionnaire)  two  hours  a  day  regularly, 
to  brace  the  fighting  power  of  the  intellect,  but  let  the  rest  of  the  day's  work  be  easier.  Ac- 
quire especially,  if  you  possibly  can,  the  enviable  faculty  of  getting  entirely  rid  of  your 
work  in  the  intervals  of  it,  and  of  taking  a  hearty  interest  in  common  things,  in  a  garden, 
or  stable,  or  dog-kennel,  or  farm.  If  the  work  pursues  you, —  if  what  is  called  unconscious 
cerebration,  which  ought  to  go  forward  without  your  knowing  it,  becomes  conscious  cere- 
bration, and  bothers  you,  then  you  have  been  working  beyond  your  cerebral  strength. 

The  reading  practised  by  most  people,  by  all  who  do  not  set  before  themselves  intellectual 
culture  as  one  of  the  definite  aims  of  life,  is  remarkable  for  the  regularity  with  which  it 
neglects  all  the  great  authors  of  the  past.  The  books  provided  by  the  circulating  library, 
the  reviews  and  magazines,  the  daily  newspapers,  are  read  while  they  are  novelties,  but 
the  standard  authors  are  left  on  their  shelves  unopened.  We  require  a  firm  resolution  to 
resist  this  invasion  of  what  is  new,  because  it  flows  like  an  unceasing  river,  and  unless  we 
protect  our  time  against  it  by  some  solid  embankment  of  unshakable  rule  and  resolution, 
every  nook  and  cranny  of  it  will  be  filled  and  flooded.  An  Englishman  whose  life  was  de- 
voted to  culture,  but  who  lived  in  an  out-of-the-way  place  on  the  Continent,  told  me  that 
he  considered  it  a  decided  advantage  to  his  mind  to  live  quite  outside  of  the  English  library 
system,  because  if  he  wanted  to  read  a  new  book  he  had  to  buy  it  and  pay  heavily  for  car- 
riage besides,  which  made  him  very  careful  in  his  choice.  For  the  same  reason  he  rejoiced 
that  the  nearest  English  newsroom  was  two  hundred  miles  from  his  residence. 

For  literary  men  there  is  nothing  so  valuable  as  a  window  with  a  cheerful  and  beautiful 
prospect.  In  years  gone  by,  I  had  only  to  look  up  from  my  desk  and  see  a  noble  loch  in  its 
inexhaustible  loveliness,  and  a  mountain  in  its  majesty.  It  was  a  daily  and  hourly  delight 
to  watch  the  breezes  play  about  the  enchanted  isles,  on  the  delicate  silvery  surface,  dim- 
ming some  clear  reflection,  or  trailing  it  out  in  length,  or  cutting  sharply  across  it  with 
acres  of  rippling  blue.  It  was  a  frequent  pleasure  to  see  the  clouds  play  about  the  crest"  of 
Cruachan  and  Ben  Vorich's  golden  head,  grey  mists  that  crept  upwards  from  the  valleys 
till  the  sunshine  caught  them  and  made  them  brighter  than  the  snows  they  shaded. 

PHILIP  G.  HAMERTON. 


86 


MINION  No.  20.     TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.    61  LINES,  659  WORDS. 


UST  how  watchful  and  painstaking 
the  proof-readers  in  large  printing  es- 
tablishments are  required  to  be,  may 
be  understood  from  the  following  ex- 
tracts from  the  Instructions  to  Proof- 
readers-in  the  Office  Manual  of  the 
DeVinne  Press: 

The  spelling,  capitalizing,  and 
pointing  of  a  writer  who  is  educated 
and  methodical  must  not  be  changed 
without  order  from  editor  or  the  office. 
If  the  writer  be  educated  but  not  me- 
thodical, the  reader  must  make  his 
work  uniform  in  style  according  to 
what  he  believes  is  the  writer's  neg- 
lected standard.  If  the  copy  has  been 
very  carelessly  written,  or  is  clearly  the 
work  of  an  undisciplined  writer,  the 
reader  will  correct  the  proof  according 
to  the  standard  of  the  editor  or  of  the 
office,  as  may  be  directed. 

Bad  spelling  and  bad  grammar  for 
which  there  is  no  authority  must  be 
corrected  where  they  have  obviously 
been  made  through  ignorance  or 
thoughtlessness.  Exception  must  be 
made  to  this  rule  in  dialect  and  quo- 


tations intended  to  be  literally  exact.  Dialect  must  be  made  uniform  in  spelling,  even  if  irreg- 
ular in  copy  ;  different  abbreviations  of  the  same  word  by  the  same  writer  should  not  be  passed. 

Strange  proper  names,  either  of  places  or  people,  of  history  or  fiction,  must  always  be  veri- 
fied by  reference  to  a  biographical  or  geographical  dictionary.  A  reader  is  in  fault  if  he  allow 
to  be  misspelled  any  word  which  can  be  found  in  the  reference  books  of  the  office.  The  same 
observation  will  apply  to  quotations  from  the  Bible,  to  ordinary  proverbs,  quotations  or  phrases 
in  foreign  languages,  and  to  the  ordinary  nomenclature  of  science. 

The  time  to  be  spent  and  the  care  to  be  given  to  a  piece  of  reading  must  be  determined  by  its 
importance.  Ordinary  work  should  be  made  correct  to  copy  and  yet  done  with  reasonable 
dispatch.  Writings  of  value  should  always  be  read  critically,  with  a  view  to  the  discovery  of 
more  serious  errors  than  those  of  spelling  and  punctuation. 

When  the  reader  discovers  a  plain  error  of  statement,  obviously  made  by  the  writer  through 
lapse  of  memory  or  slip  of  the  pen,  he  should  correct.  He  does  so,  however,  at  his  peril.  He 
must  know,  and  not  suspect,  it  to  be  an  error,  and  must  be  prepared  to  vindicate  the  soundness 
of  his  correction,  not  by  his  own  belief,  but  by  recognized  authority.  Wherever  he  only  sus- 
pects error,  he  must  query. 

Whenever  he  makes  a  change  in  a  quotation,  date,  or  statement,  he  must,  without  exception, 
note  upon  the  author's  proof  the  change  he  has  made. 

In  every  writing  of  value,  the  reader  should  query  faulty  construction  in  a  sentence,  a  bad 
metaphor,  an  inconsistent  statement,  the  misuse  of  a  word,  and  all  faults  of  similar  character; 
but  in  no  case  will  he  be  allowed  to  correct  these  faults  when  the  author  will  follow  his  reading. 
He  must  stop  with  the  query.  Only  in  extreme  cases  will  he  be  warranted  in  suggesting  to  the 
author  a  proper  correction.  The  reader  must  not  overstep  his  duty,  which  is  to  correct  and  not 
to  edit.  He  must  not  spend  unnecessary  time  in  the  consultation  of  reference  books  to  make  up 
the  deficiencies  of  a  careless  writer,  nor  should  he  worry  an  author  with  suggested  emendations, 
or  pedantic  niceties. 

Every  paragraph  containing  an  alteration  in  a  proof  that  makes  one  or  more  overruns  must 
be  re-read  as  first  proof.  It  must  be  read  aloud  by  copy-holder,  from  last  altered  proof,  or 
must  be  collated,  word  for  word,  to  the  end  of  the  paragraph.  Revising  the  alteration  only, 
and  re-reading  the  paragraph  without  copy-holder  or  collation,  will  not  be  permitted. 

The  second  reader  must  not  remodel  the  punctuation  of  the  first,  nor  make  any  serious  change 
in  the  work  he  has  done,  unless  the  matters  to  be  corrected  are  of  unmistakable  importance. 
If  he  thinks  it  necessary  to  make  great  changes,  he  should  submit  the  changes  proposed  to  the 
foreman  for  his  decision. 


8; 

MINION  No.  ii.     TKN-TO-PICA  LEADS.    61  LINKS,  828  WORDS. 


ROM  the  same  Manual  are  selected  these  Rules  for  Compositors : 

As  a  general  rule,  follow  the  fairly  prepared  copy  of  an  educated  writer,  in 
spelling,  punctuation,  and  use  of  capitals.  If  you  find  some  words  spelled  con- 
trary to  prevailing  usage,—  such  as  Kikero,  honour,  Havannah,  almanack,— or  if 
pointing  and  capitalizing  violate  office  rules,  follow  copy  without  question.  It 
is  the  author's  undoubted  right  to  go  before  the  public  in  his  own  way.  But  make 
sure  that  these  peculiarities  are  his  way — that  they  are  of  set  purpose  and  not  pen-slips. 

This  rule  will  not  apply  to  magazines,  in  which  the  methods  of  spelling,  pointing,  and 
capitalizing  adopted  by  the  editor,  for  the  sake  of  uniformity,  must  be  observed  in  prefer- 
ence to  the  wishes  of  the  author. 

You  must  not  follow  copy  that  has  been  carelessly  prepared,  without  system  in  the  use  of 
points  and  capitals,  and  by  a  writer  who  spells  badly,  either  through  carelessness  or  ignor- 
ance. You  must  correct  faults  of  spelling  and  of  grammar ;  but  you  must  not  transpose 
clauses,  nor  disconnect  sentences  that  are  too  long,  nor  change  words  that  have  not  been 
properly  selected.  Editing  must  be  done  in  the  manuscript,  not  at  case,  nor  even  in  the  proof. 

Reprint  copy,  when  inserted  in  a  text,  in  the  form  of  extracts  from  old  books,  or  letters 
or  quotations  intended  to  be  literally  exact,  must  be  scrupulously  followed  in  every  detail 
of  spelling,  abbreviation,  pointing,  or  bad  grammar.  All  the  peculiarities  of  the  writer 
must  be  preserved,  without  regard  to  the  method  of  composition  observed  in  the  text. 

The  text  must  be  uniform  in  spelling,  pointing,  and  capitalizing,  according  to  the  standard 
selected,  which  will,  as  here  specified,  sometimes  be  that  of  the  office  and,  at  others,  that 
of  editor  or  author. 

In  standard  book-work,  when  capitalizing  according  to  the  rules  of  the  office,  use  capitals 
sparingly.  The  pronouns  he,  his,  and  him,  when  referring  to  Deity,  will  always  begin  with 
lower-case  h,  as  is  done  in  the  Bible.  On  catalogues  and  general  job-work,  capitals  should 
be  more  freely  used  as  a  means  of  emphasis. 

Divisions  of  words  are  not  so  objectionable  as  uneven  spacing.  Do  not  avoid  them  at  the 
expense  of  uniform  spacing. 

The  violent  planing-down  of  a  form  will  be  regarded  as  evidence  of  the  ignorance  of  the 
workman  who  does  it.  The  same  remark  will  apply  to  unnecessary  force  in  beating  a  proof. 

Follow,  as  closely  as  you  can,  the  directions  on  your  copy  concerning  display,  as  may  be 
indicated  by  underscoring  or  otherwise.  If  copy  is  underscored  too  much,  give  the  leading 
lines  full  prominence,  and  reduce  the  size  of  the  minor  lines  of  display. 

Set  the  matter  as  writer  directs,  so  as  to  make  the  most  show,  even  if  the  direction  is  in 
violation  of  established  typographical  rules. 

Never  select  ornamented  letter  for  advertisements,  or  for  books,  or  legal  or  mercantile 
work. 

You  may  use  the  plainer  faces  of  black-letter  and  pointed  texts  for  the  display  of  law  and 
church  work,  but  they  must  be  used  sparingly  and  with  discretion. 

Even  in  ornamental  work  use  ornaments  and  ornamental  letter  sparingly.  They  are  not 
ornamental  when  used  in  excess  or  inappropriately. 

As  a  rule,  legibility  is  wanted  oftener  than  ornament.  Plain  faces  have  more  admirers 
than  fancy  letters. 

If  you  have  liberty  to  choose,  never  set  a  solid  text  type  in  a  measure  of  more  than  fifty 
ems  of  that  text  type.  Long  lines  are  hard  to  read. 

If  you  can  do  so,  select  for  the  body  of  the  text  a  type  that  can  be  leaded.  A  dozen  lines 
of  leaded  long  primer  are  more  readable  than  fifteen  lines  of  solid  small  pica. 

The  monotony  of  a  large  piece  of  plain  text,  in  which  or  over  which  there  can  be  little  or 
no  display,  can  be  relieved  by  a  large  initial  letter. 

For  plain  book-work,  or  for  matter  like  it,  in  its  avoidance  of  display,  a  plain  two-line 
letter  is  large  enough.  For  a  circular,  or  a  large  quarto  page,  an  initial  of  three  or  four  lines 
is  permissible.  Plain  initials  of  same  cut  as  the  text  are,  as  a  rule,  the  ones  most  approved. 

Avoid  fantastic  arrangements  of  types  and  ornaments.  Do  not  try  to  show  your  skill  by 
eccentric  fancies  in  composition,  but  try  to  show  up  the  subject-matter  in  the  simplest  manner. 

Never  make  ornamentation  or  ornamental  letter  the  feature  of  your  work.  Use  ornaments 
only  to  grace  the  letter,  not  to  draw  the  eye  away  from  the  reading  matter.  Observe  the 
architect's  rule :  You  may  ornament  construction ;  you  must  not  construct  ornament. 

Business  Cards  should  be  in  very  plain  and  readable  types,  and  the  lines  should  be 
arranged  in  the  simplest  manner.  Do  not  use  curved  lines  or  ornamental  letters  without 
order.  Avoid  also  extra  condensed,  script,  and  black  letters. 

If  practicable,  set  the  card  in  one  style  only,  making  display  by  different  sizes  of  that  style. 


88 
MINION  No.  20.     LEADED.     55  LINES,  895  WORDS. 


HE  old  theory  of  a  book  was,  that  if  it  were  good  enough  to  print  it  was  good 
enough  to  bind,  so  as  to  preserve  it  permanently  to  be  read  over  and  over 
again.  But  since  no  book  is  sufficiently  dry,  nor  is  the  type  set  on  the  paper 
for  this  purpose,  it  was  necessary  to  place  it  in  some  kind  of  wrapper  to 
serve  a  temporary  end.  The  most  elementary  covering  is  that  paper  wrap 
known  and  cursed  by  all  purchasers  of  German  and  French  books  — the 
'  lightest  sewing,  the  flimsiest  cover,  so  that  the  book  is  in  rags  before  it  is 
read  through.  But  the  miraculous  thing  is,  that  Continental  students  not  only  seem  willing  to 
endure  this,  but,  whether  it  is  that  they  read  their  books  laid  flat  on  the  table  and  less  at  the 
fireside  than  we  do,  they  certainly  tear  their  books  less  apart,  and  actually  keep  them  on  the 
shelves  for  years,  referring  to  them  now  and  again  in  that  condition.  The  amazement  was 
great  when,  on  first  making  his  acquaintance  many  years  ago,  the  writer  gazed  on  the  library 
shelves  of  that  great  scholar  and  charming  writer,  M.  Renan,  nearly  all  of  which  were  filled  to 
overflowing  with  books  in  paper  covers,  which,  because  he  wanted  them  so  often  for  reference, 
he  had  never  had  the  time  to  send  to  the  binders. 

The  old  boarding  of  the  last  century,  as  practiced  among  ourselves,  was  pleasant,  pretty,  and 
useful.  It  was  simply  two  sheets  of  stiff  cardboard  united  by  the  back,  the  sides  covered  with 
blue  or  gray  paper,  and  the  name  of  the  book  on  a  pasted  label.  It  served  its  purpose  till  the 
book  could  be  bound ;  it  was  neat  and  cheap,  and  there  was  no  pretense  that  it  imitated  any- 
thing beyond  itself.  Yet  it  had  its  disadvantages :  it  caught  the  dirt  easily  and  soon  became 
shabby;  while,  unquestionably,  there  are  many  books  not  good  enough  to  deserve  a  leather 
binding,  which  are  yet  worth  preserving  as  long  as  we  are  likely  to  need  them.  Hence  has 
sprung  up  what  are  called  cloth  bindings,  more  or  less  ornate,  fairly  inoffensive  in  the  hands  of 
a  person  of  taste,  but  also  frequent  vehicles  for  pretension,  vulgarity,  and  imitation.  There  is 
little  to  be  said  in  reference  to  this  matter,  except  that  in  the  case  of  really  good  books  "  boards  " 
should  always  be  regarded  as  temporary,  inadequate  coverings.  And  in  reference  to  future 
bindings,  all  faces  should  be  set  like  flints  against  a  detestable  habit  lately  introduced  of  using 
wire  instead  of  thread  to  fasten  the  sheets  together.  When  a  book  stitched  in  this  fashion  is 
sent  to  be  really  bound,  the  difficulty  of  removing  the  wire  is  so  great  that  the  book  is  almost 
sure  to  be  torn  ;  and,  moreover,  this  again  introduces  into  books  what  we  should  so  eagerly 
strive  to  eliminate,  the  merely  mechanical,  non-human  labor. 

Readers  are  much  divided  on  the  question  whether  books  should  or  should  not  be  cut.  Some 
people  are  angry  with  the  publishers  that  books  to  be  read  are  not  issued  like  Bradshaw's 
Guides,  Bibles,  Prayer-Books,  and  the  like,  with  cut  edges.  The  reason  is  that,  when  a  volume 
is  bound,  the  edges,  being  thrown  out  of  the  level  smoothness  they  have  acquired  from  the  first 
cutting,  will  need  a  second  trimming,  and  the  margin  will  be  sensibly  reduced,  so  that  the  broad 
type  will  have  a  miserably  inadequate  setting,  as  though  you  should  put  a  picture  in  a  frame 
too  narrow  for  it.  Those  who  care  for  the  future  of  our  well-bound  books  will  see  that  there 
is  reason  for  refusing  to  give  in  to  the  unreasonable  cry  for  books  with  cut  edges.  But  when 
the  paper-knife  is  used,  it  should  be  done  thoroughly.  Some  people  never  cut  a  book  hu- 
manely ;  they  tear  it,  or  maltreat  it,  as  though  they  had  a  special  enmity  toward  it. 

When  a  book  worth  preserving  is  really  to  be  bound,  the  binding  should  be  suitable,  and 
done  by  a  good  workman.  The  early  bindings  were  most  costly.  In  the  British  Museum  and 
other  great  collections,  are  to  be  seen  covers  in  gold  or  silver,  or  carven  wood,  with  bosses  of 
precious  stones,  or  of  the  metal  itself  wrought  into  special  ornament  on  velvet  or  leather.  But 
of  bindings  which  were  to  be  used  and  handled  daily,  the  earliest  fine  specimens,  which  even 
now  cannot  be  outdone,  date  from  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Many  of  the  bindings 
executed  for  Jean  Grolier  are  still  extant,  and  fetch  very  high  prices  when  they  come  into  the 
market ;  they  are  remarkable  in  another  way  than  their  beauty,  in  showing  the  large  and  liberal 
spirit  of  a  man,  for  they  are  inscribed,  "  Of  the  books  of  Jean  Grolier  and  his  friends."  His 
notion  of  a  book  was  that  it  should  be  used,  and  indeed  if  books  are  to  be  valued  men  must  be 
trusted  with  them,  and  allowed  access  even  to  those  which  are  the  most  precious.  Whoever 
will  have  his  books  really  cared  for  must  learn  to  take  in  them  an  intelligent  interest,  must  con- 
sult with,  instruct  as  well  as  defer  to,  the  artist,  and  spend  at  least  as  much  pains  about  the 
clothing  of  his  books  as  about  that  of  his  own  person  or  that  of  his  wife  and  daughters. 


89 

MINION  No.  ii.     LEADED.     55  LINES,  838  WORDS. 


R.  JAVAL  in  the  "Revue  Scientiflque,"  goes  very  thoroughly  into  the 
question  of  what  constitutes  legibility  of  type,  commencing  by  glancing 
at  the  general  progress  of  type  and  printing ;  then  noticing  the  particu- 
lar form  of  each  letter ;  thereafter  going  into  the  question  of  thin  lines 
^  or  up-strokes,  and  thick  lines  or  down-strokes,  and  concluding  with  the 
sizes  it  has  been  found  advisable  to  adopt  both  as  regards  type  and 
^  leading. 

He  contends  that  the  eye,  while  reading,  has  not  time  to  thoroughly  examine  each  letter 
in  all  its  parts,  but  that  it  follows  a  strictly  horizontal  line,  intersecting  all  the  short  letters 
at  a  point  a  little  below  the  top,  and  in  proof  of  this  he  suggests  the  following  trial,  viz. : 
having  read  a  dozen  lines  or  so  of  a  broad-faced,  but  not  leaded,  type,  to  close  your  eyes 
suddenly  —  the  result  is  that  one  sees  reflected  in  the  field  of  vision  "horizontal  flutings" 
alternately  light  and  dark,  which  are  the  reproduction  of  the  printed  matter.  This  he  con- 
siders is  sufficient  to  prove,  at  all  events,  that  the  eye  travels  horizontally  while  reading. 
Again,  the  eye  confines  itself  to  gliding  horizontally  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding  complicated 
and  useless  movements,  and  the  horizontal  position  is  dictated  by  the  structure  of  our  typo- 
graphical characters.  Thus,  if  you  cover  over  the  upper  half  of  a  line  of  type,  it  is  with 
some  difficulty  that  you  can  make  out  the  words  of  which  only  the  lower  half  is  visible ; 
while  if  you  cover  up  the  lower  half,  you  will  be  able  to  read  almost  as  easily  as  if  the  whole 
were  entirely  exposed. 

Dividing  the  alphabet  into  four  classes,  viz.,  superior  long  letters,  such  as  b,  d,  h,  &c. ; 
inferior  long  letters,  like  g,  j,  p,  &c. ;  short  straight  letters,  such  as  m,  n,  &c.,  and  short 
round  letters,  such  as  a,  c,  e  and  s,  Dr.  Javal  points  out  how  much  more  legible  some  letters 
will  always  be  than  others — no  matter  what  you  do  to  them.  He  condemns  the  practice  of 
sacrificing  everything  to  regularity  in  appearance,  and  proposes  rather  to  enlarge  the  heads 
without  altering  the  lower  part  of  the  letters ;  and  in  this  he  would  be  guided  by  ancient 
precedent.  He  is  strongly  in  favor  of  the  retention  of  the  "  terminal  lines"  which  end  the 
down-strokes,  which  he  considers  corresponds  to  the  apices  of  the  ancient  Romans,  and  are 
not  for  the  sole  purpose  of  ornament,  or  merely  the  result  of  tradition ;  but  he  at  the  same 
time  suggests  their  being  made  heavier,  in  order  that  they  may  not  suffer  injury  when  be- 
ing distributed,  or  doing  correction  on  the  stone,  and  moreover  that  they  should  be  reduced 
somewhat  in  length.  He  considers  that  the  perfection  of  form  is  a  rounded  base. 

Dr.  Javal  would  distinguish  between  type  to  be  used  for  children  and  that  to  be  used  for 
adults,  for  the  latter  read  looking  to  the  general  appearance  of  the  letters  or  even  of  whole 
words,  whereas  a  child  looks  carefully  at  each  part  of  a  letter,  and  for  children  he  would, 
therefore,  make  the  up  as  well  as  the  down  strokes  heavy.  He  attaches  the  greatest  import- 
ance to  spacing,  and  considers  that  the  white  space  at  the  sides  of  letters,  as  well  as  between 
words  themselves,  has  a  very  important  bearing  upon  the  question  of  legibility,  and  for 
that  reason  he  holds  up  as  an  example  works  printed  in  English,  which  he  deems  owe  much 
of  their  legibility  to  the  shortness  of  the  words  in  our  language,  which  has  the  effect  of 
multiplying  the  white  spaces.  Absence  of  leads,  our  authority  considers  a  matter  of  no 
consequence,  and  would  recommend  that  type  founders  should  direct  their  attention  to  in- 
creasing the  width,  and  not  touching  —  or  if  anything,  reducing  — the  depth  of  the  letters. 
As  Dr.  Javal  says,  if  paper  cost  nothing,  the  question  would  lose  a  deal  of  its  interest,  one 
would  lead  matter  heavily,  using  a  heavy  broad-faced  type,  &c.,  as  it  is  not  a  difficult  thing 
"to  live  well  when  money  is  no  object."  The  exaggerated  length  of  the  lines  in  type  is 
held  to  be  one  of  the  causes  of  the  increase  of  short  sight  in  Germany ;  and  in  explanation 
and  support  of  this  view  we  are  given  a  somewhat  elaborate  diagram  showing  the  length 
lines  should  be,  and  applying  the  argument  to  both  short  and  long-sighted  people. 

Dr.  Javal  brings  his  excellent  paper  to  a  close  with  the  expression  of  a  regret  that  at  pres- 
ent he  is  unable  to  lay  down  precise  rules  respecting  the  employment  of  the  typographic 
characters  actually  in  use ;  but  he  considers  he  has  proved  that  legibility  is  not  dependent 
on  leading,  or  on  the  height  of  the  letters,  but  on  their  breadth,  and  also  on  the  spacing ; 
it  is  only  by  fixing  the  number  of  letters  to  be  allowed  laterally,  that  a  useful  result  can  be 
accomplished.  The  length  of  the  lines  of  type  will  at  the  same  time  have  to  be  limited. 


90 

MINION  No.  16.     LEADED.     54  LINES,  909  WORDS. 


XTRACTS  from  the  letters  and  writings  of  Thomas  Carlyle  : 

"  Excepting  one  or  two  individuals,  I  have  little  society  that  I  value  very 
highly ;  but  books  are  a  ready  and  effectual  resource.  May  blessings  be  upon  the 
head  of  Cadmus,  the  Pho3iiicians,  or  whoever  it  was  that  invented  books !  I 
may  not  detain  you  with  the  praises  of  an  art  that  carries  the  voice  of  man  to 
the  extremity  of  the  earth  and  to  the  latest  generations;  but  it  is  lawful  for  the 
solitary  wight  to  express  the  love  he  feels  for  those  companions  so  steadfast  and  unpresumingi 
that  go  or  come  without  reluctance,  and  that,  when  his  fellow  animals  are  proud  or  stupid  or 
peevish,  are  ever  ready  to  cheer  the  languor  of  his  soul,  and  gild  the  barrenness  of  life  with  the 
treasures  of  bygone  times."  —  Letter  to  Robert  Mitchell,  1818. 

"Do  not  fear  that  I  shall  read  you  a  homily  on  that  hackneyed  theme  —  contentment.  Sim- 
ply I  wish  to  tell  you  that  in  days  of  darkness — for  there  are  days  when  my  support  (pride,  or 
whatever  it  is)  has  enough  to  do  —  I  find  it  useful  to  remember  that  Cleanthes,  whose  memor- 
able words  may  last  yet  another  two  thousand  years,  never  murmured  when  he  labored  by 
night  as  a  street-porter  that  he  might  hear  the  lectures  of  Zeno  by  day  ;  and  that  Epictetus,  the 
ill-used  slave  of  a  cruel  tyrant's  as  wretched  minion,  wrote  that  '  Enchiridion '  which  may  fortify 
the  soul  of  the  latest  inhabitant  of  the  earth.'-'  —  Letter  to  Robert  Mitchell,  1818. 

"  I  thank  Heaven  I  have  still  a  boundless  appetite  for  reading.  I  have  thoughts  of  lying 
buried  alive  here  [Craigenputtock]  for  many  years,  forgetting  all  stuff  about  '  reputation,'  suc- 
cess, and  so  forth,  and  resolutely  setting  myself  to  gain  insight  by  the  only  method  not  shut  out 
from  me  —  that  of  books.  Two  articles  (of  fifty  pages)  in  the  year  will  keep  me  living ;  employ- 
ment in  that  kind  is  open  enough.  For  the  rest,  I  really  find  almost  that  I  do  best  when  forgot- 
ten by  men,  and  nothing  above  or  around  me  but  the  imperishable  heaven." — Journal,  1832. 

"  On  all  sides,  are  we  not  driven  to  the  conclusion  that,  of  the  things  which  man  can  do  or 
make  here  below,  by  far  the  most  momentous,  wonderful,  and  worthy  are  the  things  we  call 
books!  Those  poor  bits  of  rag-paper  with  black  ink  on  them  —  from  the  daily  newspaper  to 
the  sacred  Book,  what  have  they  not  done,  what  are  they  not  doing !  For  indeed,  whatever  be 
the  outward  form  of  the  thing  (bits  of  paper,  as  we  say,  and  black  ink),  is  it  not  verily,  at  bottom, 
the  highest  act  of  man's  faculty  that  produces  a  book  ?  It  is  the  thought  of  man,  the  true  thau- 
maturgic  virtue,  by  which  man  works  all  things  whatsoever.  All  that  he  does,  and  brings  to 
pass,  is  the  vesture  of  a  thought.  This  London  city,  with  all  its  houses,  palaces,  steam  engines, 
cathedrals,  and  huge  immeasurable  traffic  and  tumult,  what  is  it  but  a  thought,  but  millions  of 
thoughts  made  into  one  —  a  huge,  immeasurable  spirit  of  a  thought,  embodied  in  brick,  in  iron, 
smoke,  dust,  palaces,  Parliaments,  hackney  coaches,  Katherine  Docks,  and  the  rest  of  it!  Not 
a  brick  was  made  but  some  man  had  to  think  of  the  making  of  that  brick.  The  thing  we  called 
"bits  of  paper  with  traces  of  black  ink"  is  the  purest  embodiment  a  thought  of  man  can  have. 
No  wonder  it  is,  in  all  ways,  the  activest  and  noblest." — Lectures  on  Heroes,  1840. 

"  I  do  not  know  whether  it  has  been  sufficiently  brought  home  to  you  that  there  are  two  kinds 
of  books.  When  a  man  is  reading  on  any  kind  of  subject,  in  most  departments  of  books, —  in 
all  books,  if  you  take  it  in  a  wide  sense, —  he  will  find  that  there  is  a  division  into  good  books 
and  bad  books.  Everywhere  a  good  kind  of  book  and  a  bad  kind  of  book.  I  am  not  to  assume 
that  you  are  unacquainted  or  ill-acquainted  with  this  plain  fact ;  but  I  may  remind  you  that  it  is 
becoming  a  very  important  consideration  in  our  day.  And  we  have  to  cast  aside  altogether  the 
idea  people  have,  that  if  they  are  reading  any  book,  that  if  an  ignorant  man  is  reading  any  book, 
he  is  doing  rather  better  than  nothing  at  all.  I  must  entirely  call  that  in  question ;  I  even  venture 
to  deny  that.  It  would  be  much  safer  and  better  for  many  a  reader  that  he  had  no  concern  with 
books  at  all.  There  is  a  number,  a  frightfully  increasing  number,  of  books  that  are  decidedly,  to 
the  readers  of  them,  not  useful.  But  an  ingenious  reader  will  learn,  also,  that  a  certain  number 
of  books  were  written  by  a  supremely  noble  kind  of  people,  though  not  a  very  great  number. 
In  short,  as  I  think  I  have  written  it  down  somewhere  else,  I  conceive  that  books  are  like  men's 
souls :  divided  into  sheep  and  goats.  Some  few  are  going  up,  and  carrying  us  up,  heavenward : 
calculated,  I  mean,  to  be  of  priceless  advantage  in  teaching,  in  forwarding  the  teaching  of  all 
generations.  Others,  a  frightful  multitude,  are  going  down,  down ;  doing  ever  the  more  and 
the  wider  and  the  wilder  mischief.  Keep  a  strict  eye  on  that  latter  class  of  books,  my  young 
friends." — Inaugural  Address  as' Rector  of  the  University  at  Edinburgh,  1866. 


NONPAREIL  No.  12.     LEADED.    60  LINES,  904  WORDS. 


JORACE  WALPOLE'S  gothic  romance,  "The  Castle  of  Otranto,"  was  begun 
in  June,  1764,  and  finished  on  the  6th  August  following.  It  occupied  Hjrlit 
nights  of  this  period  from  ten  o'clock  at  night  until  two  in  the  morning,  to 
the  accompaniment  of  coffee.  In  a  letter  to  Cole,  the  Cambridge  antiquary, 
with  whom  Walpole  commenced  to  correspond  in  1762,  he  gives  some  further 
particulars,  which  because  they  have  been  so  often  quoted  can  scarcely  be 
omitted  here:  "Shall  I  even  confess  to  you  what  was  the  origin  of  this  romance!  I  waked 
one  morning  in  the  beginning  of  last  June,  from  a  dream,  of  which  all  I  could  recover  was 
that  I  had  thought  myself  in  an  ancient  castle  (a  very  natural  dream  for  a  head  filled  like 
mine  with  gothic  story),  and  that  on  the  uppermost  bannister  of  a  great  staircase  I  saw  a 
gigantic  hand  in  armor.  In  the  evening  I  sat  down  and  began  to  write,  without  knowing  in 
the  least  what  I  intended  to  say  or  relate.  The  wqrk  grew  on  my  hands  and  I  grew  fond  of 
it— add  that  I  was  very  glad  to  think  of  anything,  rather  than  politics.  In  short,  I  was  so 
engrossed  by  my  tale,  which  I  completed  in  less  than  two  months,  that  one  evening  I  wrote 
from  the  time  I  had  drunk  my  tea,  about  six  o'clock,  till  half  an  hour  after  one  in  the  morn- 
ing, when  my  hand  and  fingers  were  so  weary  that  I  could  not  hold  the  pen  to  finish  the  sen- 
tence, but  left  Matilda  and  Isabella  talking,  in  the  middle  of  a  paragraph." 

The  work  of  which  the  origin  is  thus  described  was  published  in  a  limited  edition  on  the 
24th  December,  1764,  with  the  title  of  "The  Castle  of  Otranto,  a  Story,  translated  by  William 
Marshal,  Gent,  from  the  original  Italian  of  Onuphrio  Muralto,  Canon  of  the  Church  of  St. 
Nicholas  at  Otranto."  The  name  of  the  alleged  Italian  author  is  sometimes  described  as  an 
anagram  for  Horace  Walpole —a  misconception  which  is  easily  demonstrated  by  counting  the 
letters.  The  book  was  printed  not  for  Walpole,  but  for  Lownds  of  Fleet  Street,  and  it  was 
prefaced  by  an  introduction  in  which  the  author  described  and  criticised  the  supposed  origi- 
nal, which  he  declared  to  be  a  black-letter  printed  at  Naples  in  1529.  Its  success  was  consid- 
erable. It  seems  at  first  to  have  excited  no  suspicion  as  to  its  authenticity,  and  it  is  not  clear 
that  even  Gray,  to  whom  a  copy  was  sent  immediately  after  publication,  was  in  the  secret. 
"  I  have  received  the  '  Castle  of  Otranto,' "  he  says,  "  and  return  you  my  thanks  for  it.  It 
engages  our  attention  here  [at  Cambridge],  makes  some  of  us  cry  a  little,  and  all  in  general 
afraid  to  go  to  bed  o'  nights."  In  the  second  edition,  which  followed  in  April,  1765,  Walpole 
dropped  the  mask,  disclosing  his  authorship  in  a  second  preface  of  great  ability,  which, 
among  other  things,  contains  a  vindication  of  Shakespeare's  mingling  of  comedy  and  tragedy 
against  the  strictures  of  Voltaire— a  piece  of  temerity  which  some  of  his  French  friends  feared 
might  prejudice  him  with  that  formidable  critic.  But  what  is  even  more  interesting  is  his 
own  account  of  what  he  had  attempted.  He  had  endeavored  to  blend  ancient  and  modern 
romance—  to  employ  the  old  supernatural  agencies  of  Scuderi  and  La  Calprenede  as  the 
background  to  the  adventures  of  personages  modeled  closely  upon  ordinary  life.  These  are 
not  his  actual  illustrations,  but  they  express  his  meaning.  "The  actions,  sentiments,  con- 
versations, of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  ancient  days  were  as  unnatural  as  the  machines 
employed  to  set  them  In  motion."  He  would  make  his  heroes  and  heroines  natural  in  all 
these  things,  only  borrowing  from  the  older  school  some  of  that  imagination,  invention,  and 
fancy  which,  in  the  literal  reproduction  of  life,  he  thought  too  much  neglected. 

His  idea  was  novel,  and  the  moment  a  favorable  one  for  its  development.  Fluently  and 
lucidly  written,  the  "  Castle  of  Otranto"  set  a  fashion  in  literature.  But  like  many  other 
works  produced  under  similar  conditions,  it  had  its  day.  To  the  pioneer  of  a  movement 
which  has  exhausted  itself,  there  comes  often  what  is  almost  worse  than  oblivion— discredit 
and  neglect.  A  generation  like  the  present,  for  whom  fiction  has  unraveled  so  many  intri- 
cate combinations,  and  whose  Gothicism  and  Medievalism  is  better  instructed  than  Wai- 
pole's,  no  longer  feels  its  soul  harrowed  up  in  the  same  way  as  did  his  hushed  and  awestruck 
readers  of  the  days  of  the  third  George.  To  the  critic  the  book  is  interesting  as  the  first  of  a 
school  of  romances  which  had  the  honor  of  influencing  even  the  mighty  "  Wizard  of  the 
North,"  who— no  doubt  in  gratitude— wrote  for  " Ballantyne's  Novelist's  Library"  a  most 
appreciative  study  of  the  story.  But  we  doubt  if  that  many-plumed  and  monstrous  helmet, 
which  crashes  through  walls  and  cellars,  could  now  give  a  single  shiver  to  the  most  timorous 
Cambridge  don,  while  we  suspect  that  the  majority  of  modern  students  would,  like  the  author, 
leave  Matilda  and  Isabella  talking  in  the  middle  of  a  paragraph,  but  from  a  different  kind  of 
weariness.  Indeed,  Walpole's  friend,  Gilly  Williams,  wrote  to  Selwyn  upon  the  appearance 
of  the  book,  that  it  was  "  such  a  novel  that  no  boarding  school  miss  of  thirteen  could  get 
through  without  yawning."  Autres  temps,  autres  mceurs — especially  in  the  matter  of 
Gothic  Romance. 

AUSTIN  DOBSON,  "Memoirs  of  Horace  Walpole." 


92 


NONPAREIL  No.  20.     SOLID.     162  LINES,  1442  WORDS. 


OT  long  ago  a  delivery  wagon  of  the 
Adams  Express  Company  stopped  at 
the  distinctly  dingy  front  door  of  64 
Madison  Avenue.  If  Mr.  Terence 
Corrigan,  the  short-haired  but  accom- 
plished driver,  had  known  the  con- 
tents of  the  somewhat  heavy  box  that 
he  lugged  into  the  house  and  gave  into  the  care  of  a 
dark-eyed  gentleman  with  a  pleasant  voice,  who  met 
him  in  the  hall,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  he  would  have 
opened  his  blue  eyes,  scratched  his  hard  head,  and 
perhaps  have  sworn  a  gentle  oath  or  two  as  he  reflected 
upon  the  number  of  fools  in  the  world  hitherto  undis- 
covered by  himself.  The  box  did  not  contain  either 
snakes  or  dynamite  —  only  a  single  book.  But  that 
book  was  worth  $16,000. 

It  came  from  Mr.  Theodore  Irwin  of  Oswego,  N.  Y., 
and  was  sent  to  the  Grolier  Club,  to  be  shown  in  one 
of  the  club's  occasional  exhibitions  of  rare,  curious,  and 
antique  books.  It  was  a  Gutenberg  Bible,  of  which 
seven  copies  are  known  to  be  in  existence.  Mr.  Bray- 
ton  Ives  has  one,  for  instance,  but  he  does  n't  keep  it 
in  his  pew  in  church.  Being  the  first  book  printed 
with  movable  types,  he  is  afraid  it  might  become  a  type 
of  movable  books,  and  that  he  might  not  find  it  when 
he  wanted  to  follow  the  lesson  for  the  day. 

The  Grolier  Club,  as  many  people  know,  was  founded 
in  1884  by  a  few  gentlemen  interested  in  such  matters. 
It  is  a  gathering  of  those  who  love  books  for  their  ex- 
ternal beauty  —  for  the  choice  quality  of  the  paper,  for 
the  graceful  firmness  of  the  type,  for  the  even  clearness 
of  the  presswork,  for  the  harmonious  elegance  of  the 
illustrations,  and  for  the  decorative  skill  bestowed  on 
the  binding.  Its  constitution  declares  that  "its  object 
shall  be  the  literary  study  and  promotion  of  the  arts 
pertaining  to  the  production  of  books."  That  is  to 
say,  the  Grolier  Club  is  interested  in  books  not  as  lit- 
erature but  as  works  of  art.  It  is  with  the  art  and 
mystery  of  the  book-maker,  the  printer,  the  engraver, 
and  the  binder,  and  not  with  the  secrets  of  authorship, 
that  the  members  of  the  Grolier  Club  concern  them- 
selves, although  many  of  them  are  scholars  and  stu- 
dents of  literature.  They  are  true  book-lovers,  and 
not  mere  book-hoarders ;  they  are  bibliophiles,  not 
bibliomaniacs ;  they  love  a  book  for  its  intrinsic 
beauty,  they  cherish  a  volume  because  of  its  charm- 
ing vignettes  or  its  vigorous  presswork.  Its  resident 
membership  of  250  is  now  full.  Its  non-resident  mem- 
bership is  spread  from  London  to  Oregon. 

The  club  is  named  for  Jean  Grolier  de  Servier,  Vis- 
count d'Aguisy,  Treasurer-General  of  France,  states- 
man and  lover  of  books.  He  was  born  in  1476,  and 
during  the  eighty-six  years  of  his  life  he  was  the  friend 
of  kings  and  of  artisans,  of  popes  and  of  bookbinders. 
He  helped  struggling  literary  men  by  asking  them  to 
dinner  and  setting  before  them,  with  the  medieval 
walnuts,  "gloves,  in  each  of  which  was  a  considerable 
sum  of  gold." 

In  his  wonderful  library  were  to  be  found  only  such 
books  as  were  remarkable  for  their  literary  value  and 
their  beauty  of  form.  He  selected  the  best  copies  he 
could  find,  and  often  had  several  copies  of  a  book 
printed  especially  for  himself  on  fine  paper,  and  bound 
in  the  richest  manner  possible.  The  finest  copy  he  kept 
for  himself  and  distributed  the  others  among  his  lucky 
friends.  He  had  the  frontispieces  and  the  initials 
painted  in  gold  and  in  colors,  and  the  covers  were  or- 
namented by  the  most  skilful  workmen  in  the  world. 
He  permitted  himself  the  exquisite  extravagance  of 
having  new  margins  c  irefully  added  to  leaves  which 
had  been  left  too  short  in  folding,  so  that  all  the  mar- 
gins might  be  uniformly  and  exceptionally  wide.  Some 
people  believe  that  he  was  so  generous  as  to  consider 
his  books  the  "common  property  of  his  friends  and 
himself."  If  this  be  true,  none  of  his  descendants  have 
inherited  his  open  heart. 

His  library  was  sold  and  scattered  in  1675,  and 
books  bound  by  Grolier  and  bearing  his  motto  on  the 
side  are  sought  for  to-day  by  the  greatest  public  libra- 
ries and  the  richest  collectors  as  unimpeachable  treas- 
ures. A  simple  octavo  volume  from  his  library  has 


been  sold  for  $750.  Columbia  College  owns  examples 
of  Grolier,  so  does  the  Astor  Library,  and  so  do  sev- 
eral private  collectors  of  this  city. 

Such  was  the  amiable  gentleman  whom  the  Grolier 
Club  has  taken  for  its  patron  saint.  And  as  the  lady 
in  Du  Manner's  picture  urged  her  Philistine  husband 
to  try  and  live  up  to  the  early  English  teapot  she  had 
just  bought  as  an, ornament  for  her  drawing-room,  so 
does  this  society  of  enthusiastic  gentlemen  endeavor 
to  preserve  the  truest  traditions  of  artistic  book-making 
in  its  own  publications.  Of  these,  perhaps  the  most 
attractive  up  to  the  present  time  is  the  "  Knickerbocker 
History  of  New  York,"  in  two  volumes,  which  was 
issued  from  the  press  of  De  Vinne  last  year. 

The  type  from  which  this  book  was  printed  was 
made  abroad  expressly  for  the  work,  and,  by  the  way, 
was  afterward  used  in  printing  J.  S.  of  Dale's  charm- 
ing "  Sentimental  Calendar." 

But  the  Grolier  Club  never  rests  content.  It  made 
arrangements  for  the  publication  of  another  book,  and 
even  Jean  Grolier  himself,  should  he  come  down,  or 
up,  or  out  (as  the  reader  may  prefer)  from  his  present 
abode,  andvisit64  Madison  Avenue,  would  have  to  con- 
fess that  the  "Philobiblon"  of  Richard  de  Bury  as  re- 
printed by  the  Grolier  Club,  even  in  this  later  and  more 
careless  day,  is  something  that  does  really  resemble  a 
book.  The  black-letter  types  are  drives  of  punches 
believed  to  have  been  cut  in  France  in  the  first  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  There  are  rubricated  initials, 
of  a  full-bodied  vermilion  not  often  seen  nowadays ; 
and  there  is  the  very  perfection  of  presswork,  both 
in  impression  and  in  register — indeed,  such  registry 
as  this  would  be  absolutely  accidental,  not  to  say 
impossible,  on  the  hand-presses  of  the  early  printers, 

Richard  de  Bury  was  Bishop  of  Durham,  and  Chan- 
cellor of  England  under  Edward  III.  He  collected 
rare  manuscripts,  and  used  to  gobble  up  all  the  best 
bargains  of  the  day,  having  a  strong  backing  of  both 
church  and  state,  and  none  of  the  other  bishops  could 
boast  such  a  library  as  his.  But  since  even  bishops 
have  to  die,  the  astute  prelate  of  Durham  made  the 
drawing  of  his  will  an  occasion  for  writing  an  elabor- 
ate treatise  on  the  value  of  books  in  general,  of  his  own 
in  particular,  and  of  his  singular  munificence  in  leav- 
ing them  all  to  the  University  of  Oxford  as  the 
foundation  of  a  library;  and  the  "Philobiblon"  is 
this  ingenious  testament. 

It  is  written  in  fourteenth  century  Latin,  which  is 
somewhat  below  the  average  Latin  prose  of  a  third- 
term  freshman  at  Columbia ;  but  he  said  his  say  with 
pompous  force,  and  evidently  meant  to  floor  the  lazy 
monks  with  the  weight  of  his  learning.  It  possesses 
marked  qualities  of  wit  and  strong  sense,  however,  and 
is  probably  the  most  valuable  contemporary  picture 
extant  of  early  fourteenth  century  habits  and  ideas. 

Prof.  A.  F.  West  of  Princeton  College  went  abroad 
to  visit  several  foreign  libraries  and  carefully  edit  the 
various  texts  of  the  book.  In  1856  only  fourteen 
manuscripts  were  known  to  exist.  Prof.  West  has 
dug  out  twenty-two  more ;  and  all  these  old  parchments 
are  scattered  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe. 
He  personally  examined  twenty-five  of  them. 

The  mechanical  work  on  this  book  is  also  unique. 
The  type  was  madf  in  England  from  matrices  which 
had  lain  dusty  for  over  200  years.  Its  title-page  and 
initials  are  rubricated  after  the  best  antique  models, 
and  the  cover  is  adorned  with  the  seal  of  Richard  de 
Bury.  The  patriotism  of  the  club  was  vented  upon 
the  paper,  which  was  made  here  by  American  hands 
from  purely  American  rags  picked  under  the  shadow 
of  the  Stars  and  Stripes. 

In  sober  earnest,  where  but  in  America  does  a  book 
club  exist  that  sends  a  scholar,  at  its  own  expense,  to 
pass  months  in  collating  the  most  perfect  text  pos- 
sible of  a  book  to  be  published  for  private  circulation 
in  the  cause  of  the  pnnter'sand  book-maker's  art? 

This  is  not  a  state  library,  it  is  a  private  club;  and 
its  devotion  to  the  "exquisite  frenzy  of  the  biblio- 
mania" must  win  it  the  wreath  —  one  might  almost 
say  the  belt  —  that  goes  with  the  ground-floor  apart- 
ments in  the  temple  of  fame. 

NEW-YORK  SUN. 


93 


NONPAREIL  No.  22.     SOLID.     162  LINES,  1353  WORDS. 


HE  most  useful  information  on  the 
subject  of  the  preparation  of  manu- 
script for  the  press  could  probably  be 
got  from  the  conjoint  evidence  of 
a  publisher  or  publisher's  taster,  a 
compositor,  and  a  printer's  reader. 
Failing  these,  a  few  notes  from  one  who  has  had 
a  somewhat  varied  experience  as  journalist  and 
editor,  as  well  as  writer  of  books,  may  not  be 
found  unacceptable. 

Good,  clear  manuscript  is  not  only  a  comfort  to 
the  person  who  has  to  decide  upon  its  acceptance 
for  publication,  and  a  convenience  to  the  composi- 
tor and  printer's  reader,  but  to  the  publisher  or 
whomever  is  responsible  in  a  pecuniary  sense  it  is 
a  great  saving  in  the  cost  of  production.  The  cost 
of  correcting  the  press  often  amounts  to  a  fifth,  and 
even  a  fourth,  of  the  cost  of  typographical  composi- 
tion. In  the  case  of  some  authors  it  is  a  positive 
saving,  after  the  proofs  have  been  revised  by  them, 
to  set  the  whole  of  the  work  over  again.  The  print- 
ers of  Balzac's  works  invariably  did  this.  To  young 
authors  who  desire  to  gain  a  footing  with  publish- 
ers, a  legible  handwriting  is  indispensable.  A  popu- 
lar author  whose  works  are  sure  to  be  profitable 
to  a  publisher  can  doubtless  be  indifferent  to  the 
character  of  his  handwriting,  though  whether  his 
carelessness  is  on  any  grounds  justifiable  is  open 
to  doubt.  It  is  an  especial  wrong  to  the  composi- 
tor in  those  printing-offices  where  the  work  done 
is  paid  for  by  the  piece  ;  nor  is  it  fair  to  the  pub- 
lisher, who,  in  such  cases,  has  to  bear  a  heavy  out- 
lay for  corrections. 

It  is  on  record  that  the  two  worst  writers  of  man- 
uscript for  the  "  Edinburgh  Review  "  in  its  earlier 
and  palmy  days  were  Jeffrey,  the  editor,  and  his 
most  industrious  contributor,  Sydney  Smith.  The 
latter  compared  his  own  handwriting  to  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  a  swarm  of  ants  escaping  from  an  ink 
bottle,  and  walking  over  a  sheet  of  paper  without 
wiping  their  legs ;  and  when  his  wife  inclosed  him 
an  illegible  passage  from  one  of  his  letters  from 
London,  and  asked  for  an  interpretation,  he  replied 
that  "he  must  decline  ever  reading  his  own  hand- 
writing fpur-and-twenty  hours  after  he  had  written 
it."  It  is  amusing  to  find  that  this  owner  of  a 
wretched  caligraphy  was  compelled  to  ask  Jeffrey 
to  dictate  his  letters  and  not  write  them  himself. 
Referring  to  one  of  Jeffrey's  epistles,  he  says :  "I 
have  tried  to  read  it  from  right  to  left,  and  Mrs. 
Sydney  from  left  to  right,  and  we  can  neither  of 
us  decipher  a  single  word."  The  printers  had  to 
guess  their  way  through  Jeffrey's  manuscript. 
Lord  Cockburn  complained  of  his  illegible  hand, 
and  of  his  aversion  to  new  paragraphs,  and  says 
that  he  wrote  whole  volumes,  and  even  an  entire 
play,  with  the  full  complement  of  acts  and  scenes, 
without  a  new  line. 

The  manuscripts  of  both  Wordsworth  and  Byron 
were  almost  illegible,  and  the  revision  of  their 
proofs  was  a  work  of  immense  labor.  Byron  made 
a  fearful  mess  of  his  proofs,  scrawling  corrections 
on  the  margins  till  Murray  and  his  printers  were 
almost  driven  out  of  their  senses.  His  additions 
were  generally  greater  than  the  original  text.  The 
"Giaour,"  for  example,  as  sent  to  the  printer,  con- 
tained 400  lines.  A  thousand  more  were  added  in 
the  proof.  Sir  Walter  Scott's  proofs,  again,  were  a 
terror  to  his  printers.  Dr.  Lardner  states  that  the 
MS.  of  the  "  History  of  Scotland  "  was  full  of  slips, 
of  incomplete  sentences,  of  repetitions,  bad  gram- 
mar, and  clumsiness,  so  that  when  it  came  to  be 
corrected  in  proof,  the  printers  had  a  prolonged 
and  complicated  task.  The  doctor,  therefore,  had 
the  rest  of  the  copy  rewritten  by  a  competent  clerk, 
"to  make  it  read,"  before  it  was  given  to  the  com- 
positors. It  is  reported  that  the  Laureate  has 
for  a  long  time  adopted  the  practice  of  having  his 
poems  set  up  in  type,  and  he  corrects  and  rear- 
ranges them  at  leisure  —  a  plan  which  is  only  pos- 
sible, as  a  rule,  in  the  case  of  a  rich  and  indulgent 


publisher  or  a  magnate  in  the  world  of  letters. 
Macaulay 's  first  drafts  were  written  in  a  small  hand, 
with  many  interlineations  and  erasures ;  but  he 
always  wrote  out  the  whole  for  the  press  in  a  large 
and  perfectly  clear  hand.  Doubtless  many  authors 
do  the  same,  but  the  mechanical  work  of  copying 
is  a  drudgery  which  others  absolutely  decline  to 
undertake.  Cowper  could  not  have  been  a  very 
good  penman,  for  he  wrote  to  Lady  Hesketh  re- 
garding one  of  his  poems  that  had  been  published 
in  the  "  Gentleman's  Magazine  "  :  "  It  is  enough  to 
craze  a  poor  poet  to  see  his  verses  so  miserably 
misprinted,  and,  which  is  worse  if  possible,  his 
very  praises  in  a  manner  annihilated  by  a  jumble 
of  the  lines  out  of  their  places,  so  that  in  two 
instances  the  end  of  the  period  takes  the  lead  of 
the  beginning  of  it."  Cowper's  Memoirs,  too, 
were  apparently  printed  from  an  ill-written  MS. 
Of  this  there  is  a  whimsical  proof  where  the 
Persian  Letters  of  Montesquieu  are  spoken  of,  and 
the  compositor,  unable  to  decipher  that  author's 
name,  converted  it  into  "Mules  Quince"! 

This  wretched  scrawling  might  well  be  called  the 
"whichever  you  please"  style,  something  as  Rus- 
kin  has  cleverly  noticed  scratchy  drawing  and  paint- 
ing. "If  there  were  a  creature  in  the  foreground 
of  a  picture,"  says  he,  "of  which  he  could  not  de- 
cide whether  it  were  a  pony  or  a  pig,  the  critic 
would  probably  affirm  it  to  be  a  generalization  of 
pony  and  pig,  and  consequently  a  high  example 
of  'harmonious  union  and  simple  effect.'  But  I 
should  call  it  simple  bad  drawing." 

There  are  differences  in  the  right  mode  of  pre- 
paring the  manuscript  of  a  book  and  the  copy  in- 
tended for  a  newspaper,  but  one  practical  require- 
ment is  the  same  in  both  cases.  The  manuscript 
must  occupy  one  side  of  the  page  only.  The  chief 
reasons  for  this  are,  first,  to  enable  the  author  to 
make  additions  on  the  opposite  page,  or  at  the 
back  of  the  page,  and,  second,  to  facilitate  the 
work  of  the  compositor.  Copy  for  newspapers  or 
the  periodical  press  should  not  entirely  cover  the 
sheet.  A  margin  should  be  left  at  the  top  of  each 
page  or  slip,  and  another  down  the  left-hand  side. 
These  are  necessary  for  the  marks  which  the  edi- 
tor may  deem  it  necessary  to  make  for  the  guid- 
ance of  the  printer.  All  proper  names  and  unusual 
and  foreign  words  should  be  written  with  careful 
distinctness,  as  near  like  print  as  possible.  Es- 
pecially is  this  requisite  in  cases  where  the  author 
is  not  likely  to  have  a  proof  for  revision,  as  in  most 
newspaper  work. 

Apart  from  the  question  of  handwriting — which, 
of  course,  is  all-important — there  are  two  things 
which  many  regular  writers  and  still  more  occa- 
sional or  infrequent  writers  for  the  press  neglect : 
punctuation  and  paragraphing.  These  may  be 
thought  to  be  indifferent  matters,  but  they  are  not 
so.  The  sense  frequently  depends  upon  accurate 
punctuation ;  and  if  the  work  makes  any  preten- 
sions to  style,  nicety  of  pointing  is  indispensable. 
Paragraphing,  again,  is  an  art  in  its  way,  which 
appears  to  be  little  studied.  Articles  of  a  couple 
of  columns  in  length  are  not  infrequently  written 
without  a  single  break,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  some  writers  who  make  a  paragraph  of 
every  sentence.  It  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the 
more  distressing. 

Study  the  make-up  of  your  book  as  you  study  the 
architecture  of  your  house.  Have  all  your  plans 
legible  and  neatly  laid  put,  so  that  the  builders  of 
books  as  well  as  the  builders  of  houses  may  not  be 
obliged  to  hesitate  in  uncertainty.  Many  times 
the  reading  of  a  book  has  made  the  fortune  of  a 
man,  has  decided  his  way  of  life.  It  makes  friends, 
it  awakens  responsive  feelings  in  strangers,  it  is 
a  tie  between  men  who  have  been  delighted  with 
the  same  book.  Dr.  Johnson,  hearing  of  a  man 
who  had  reveled  in  Burton's  "Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly," said,  "If  I  had  known  that  I  should  have 
hugged  him." 

J.  H.  NODAL,  in  "Manchester  Quarterly." 


94 
NONPAREIL  No.  20.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     134  LINES,  1199  WORDS. 


O  one  who  has  lived  for  years  in  compan- 
ionship with  the  old  masters  of  the  art 
of  wood-engraving  can  look  with  com- 
placency on  the  boasts  of  modern  wood- 
engravers  that  they  have  brought  that 
art  to  such  perfection  that  they  are  en- 
titled to  be  regarded  as  its  masters.  Nor  is  it  fair  in 
the  history  of  Art  to  allow  the  statement  to  continue 
unchallenged  before  the  world  that  the  art  which 
now  furnishes  a  large  part  of  the  illustration  of  our 
magazines  and  periodicals  is  that  old  art  whose 
triumphs  are  famous. 

Let  us  begin  at  the  beginning.  Babylonian  seals, 
four  thousand  years  ago,  impressed  signatures  on  writ- 
ten documents.  Men  wrote  in  those  days  and  in  that 
country  with  the  corner  of  a  style  which  had  a  rectan- 
gular end,  and  the  corner  made  cuneiform,  wedge- 
shaped,  impressions  in  clay  tablets,  they  using  clay  as 
we  use  paper.  The  seal  was  then  a  cylinder,  to  be 
rolled  over  the  clay.  It  was  the  first  roller  printing- 
press,  and  it  printed  letters,  and  pictures  of  men  and 
of  gods.  The  art  of  thus  printing  pictures  from  en- 
graved surfaces  was  used,  with  color,  in  later  times. 
We  have  no  specimens  of  color-printing,  but  we  have 
some  Roman  stamps  for  printing,  and  these  suffice  to 
prove  the  survival  of  the  art  down  to  the  fifteenth 
century  after  Christ.  In  the  early  fifteenth  century 
(if  not  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth,  as  is  pos- 
sible) there  were  in  Europe,  especially  in  Germany,  so 
many  men  employed  in  cutting  stamps  of  wood,  with 
which  to  print  color,  that  guilds  of  form-schneiders, 
model-cutters,  existed.  The  stamps  were  used  to  print 
patterns  on  playing-cards,  as  we  know  by  specimens. 
I  have  a  few  before  me  as  I  write.  It  is  probable  also 
that  they  were  used  to  print  forms  for  religious  pictures. 
In  all  cases  the  stamp  only  printed  a  form,  which  was 
afterward  filled  out  with  colors  by  hand. 

The  oldest  specimen  we  have  of  a  form  for  a  picture 
printed  from  a  wood  block  (except  on  playing-cards) 
is  a  St.  Christopher,  which  bears  the  date  1423.  Per- 
haps it  is,  perhaps  it  is  not,  the  date  of  the  work. 
About  that  time  such  prints  were  known,  and  not  long 
after  became  common.  Many  were  made,  as  was  the 
St.  Christopher,  with  legends  cut  on  the  block  to  be 
printed.  So  the  art  of  printing  words  and  sentences 
and  pages,  from  woodcut  blocks,  came  into  use,  and 
then  Gutenberg,  not  long  after  1450,  seized  the  idea 
of  separately  cut  letters,  which  could  be  "set  up"  — 
namely,  what  we  call  type  —  and  so  printing  with 
movable  type  came. 

Printing  was  only  a  method  of  rapid  writing.  So 
its  inventor  regarded  it.  The  early  printed  books 
were  fac-similes  of  manuscripts.  It  had  been  common 
to  ornament  manuscripts  by  painting  the  initials  of 
chapters  and  sections  in  large  and  ornamental  letters. 
So  in  printed  books  blanks  were  left  wherein  the  owner 
could  have  such  letters  painted  by  hand.  Soon,  how- 
ever, some  few  engraved  initial  letters  began  to  be 
printed,  notably  in  the  great  psalter  of  Fust  and 
Schoeffer  of  1457.  Manuscripts  had  been  ornamented 
with  border  designs.  The  printers  began  to  have  these 
ornaments  cut  on  blocks  and  printed  them  in  books. 
I  have  no  earlier  example  of  this  than  in  the  Durandus 
by  Zainer  of  1475,  in  which  the  outline  of  a  vine  runs 
up  the  margin  of  the  first  folio,  printed  from  a  wood 
block  and  afterward  painted  by  hand.  Manuscripts 
had  been  ornamented  with  pictures,  most  commonly 


little  pictures  set  in  the  manuscript.  The  form-schnei- 
ders began  about  1465  to  furnish  the  printers  with 
blocks  on  which  they  had  cut  the  forms,  outline 
sketches  of  pictures  to  be  printed  in  the  book.  These 
were  afterward  to  be  painted  in  colors  by  artists,  who 
made  a  business  of  thus  ornamenting  books.  An  im- 
mense number  of  books  were  printed  before  1490  con- 
taining pictures  of  this  sort.  At  the  same  time  the 
form-schneiders  continued  to  cut  blocks  for  printing 
outlines  of  religious  pictures  which  monks  and  others 
finished  in  colors. 

Up  to  1490  that  art  which  we  have  known  as  the 
art  of  wood-engraving  cannot  be  said  to  have  existed. 
The  art  which  made  the  blocks  for  the  pictures  and 
books  we  have  spoken  of  was  no  advance  on  the  seal 
cutting  of  the  early  Babylonians.  Nor  was  it  an  art 
capable  of  any  advance,  since  it  was  mere  form  cutting, 
its  purpose  being  mainly  to  enable  those  who  painted 
pictures  to  produce  many  copies  of  the  same  picture 
in  cheap  style.  In  books  it  made  all  copies  of  the  book 
alike.  No  known  artist  of  the  fifteenth  century  had 
used  the  art  to  publish  his  pictures. 

But  the  important  fact  is  that  up  to  1490  the  art  had 
never  produced  a  picture.  The  purpose  of  the  art  was 
to  produce  colored  pictures,  not  printed  pictures.  It 
printed  only  plans  for  pictures,  and  no  picture  printed 
from  a  wood  block  was  complete  till  the  painter  had 
painted  it  in  colors.  Nor  in  the  middle  of  the  century . 
did  the  general  public  know  anything  about  pictures 
in  black  lines  on  white  paper.  They  knew  only  col- 
ored pictures. 

Now  came  into  the  world  Albert  Diirer.  He  was 
living  in  Nuremberg  with  his  wife  Agnes.  He  was  a 
young  artist  of  deep  thought,  full  of  desire  to  make 
his  art  a  teacher  of  his  age.  I  have  imagined  his 
course  of  thought.  The  great  printing-office  of  his 
godfather  Koburger,  in  Nuremberg,  was  thundering 
day  after  day.  He  heard  it,  and  said  to  himself  and 
to  Agnes:  "Not  a  great  while  ago  my  friends,  and 
the  great  men  of  the  day,  who  teach  and  preach  by 
word  of  mouth,  could  only  reach  men  by  a  manuscript 
and  their  voices.  Now  this  great  art  of  printing  mul- 
tiplies their  manuscripts  so  that  they  become  a  thou- 
sand teaching  and  preaching  voices.  But  I,  I  who  am 
also  a  teacher  of  great  truths,  I  can  only  paint  a  pic- 
ture, and  speak  through  it  to  the  few  who  see  it.  How 
can  I  write  lessons  in  pictures  and  multiply  them  as 
manuscripts  are  multiplied?  How  can  I,  an  artist, 
use  the  printing-press  to  reach  the  people  far  and 
near?" 

At  length  he  struck  the  idea.  "These  form-schnei- 
ders can  cut  wood  blocks  to  print  rude  outline  forms 
for  painters.  Why  should  not  I  draw  a  complete  pic- 
ture on  a  wood  block  and  cut  it  myself,  or  teach  Jer- 
ome the  form-schneider  or  some  one  else  how  to  cut  it, 
then  print  it  for  the  people?" 

So  he  made  his  first  picture  on  a  wood  block,  and 
he  or  a  form-schneider  under  his  eye  cut  it,  and  he 
printed  the  picture,  and  the  art  of  wood-engraving 
blazed  on  the  world.  It  enlightened  Europe.  Its 
power  fully  equaled  the  power  of  Gutenberg's  art  of 
printing  words  with  movable  type.  I  have  said  else- 
where and  repeat  that  Martin  Luther  and  Philip 
Melancthon  would  have  talked  to  a  dead  Germany  if 
Albert  Diirer  had  not  preceded  them,  and  his  new  art, 
in  such  hands  as  those  of  Lucas  Cranach,  accompanied 
them. 

WM.  C.  PRIME. 


95 


NONPAREIL  No.  22.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     134  LINES,  1147  WORDS. 


HE  essence  of  the  art  of  wood-engrav- 
ing, invented  by  Albert  Durer,  was 
just  this,  that  by  this  means  the  art- 
ist was  enabled  to  reach  the  people 
through  the  printing-press. 
No  artist  had  ever  before  dreamed  of  possessing 
such  power,  such  broad  fields  of  influence  and 
popularity,  as  Durer's  art  now  placed  in  his  grasp. 
For  a  hundred  years  the  art  was  a  mighty  weapon 
for  good  in  the  world. 

Instantly  upon  its  invention  by  Durer  a  large 
number  of  artists  seized  on  it  as  a  means  of  direct 
communication  with  the  people.  Those  who  have 
not  seen  the  works  of  such  men  have  no  idea  what 
they  were.  The  woodcut  pictures  of  Durer,  Burg- 
mair,  Schauffelin,  Cranac,  Baldung-Grun,  and  other 
eminent  artists  are  well  known  to  collectors.  Few 
except  collectors  ever  see  them.  Modern  artists 
are  not  acquainted  with  them  as  they  should  be. 
They  are  of  all  sizes.  The  "Triumphal  Arch"  by 
Diirer  consists  of  a  large  number  of  prints  on  sepa- 
rate sheets,  which  when  brought  together  make  a 
wood  print  as  large  as  the  end  of  a  small  room.  The 
"Triumph"  by  Burgmair,  in  like  manner  on  differ- 
ent blocks,  would  require  so  long  a  space  to  hold 
the  print  when  brought  together,  that  probably  no 
one  has  ever  attempted  it.  It  is  known  only  in  a 
large  oblong  volume.  The  "Raising  of  Lazarus" 
and  "The  Last  Supper,"  both  by  Schauffelin,  are 
prints  three  feet  four  inches  long  by  nearly  two  feet 
six  inches  high.  The  products  of  the  art,  from  such 
grand  works  down  to  the  smallest  pictures  by  Hans 
Sebald  Beham  and  Hans  Lutzelburger,  and  those 
attributed  to  Holbein,  are  not  alone  beautiful  works 
and  great  works,  but  they  are  of  inestimable  value 
because  they  are,  each  and  every  one,  the  work  of 
a  renowned  artist ;  his  own  work,  printed  from  the 
lines  made  by  his  own  pencil  in  his  own  hand. 

The  form-schneider  had  now  become  what  we 
call  a  wood-engraver,  although  in  Germany  he  re- 
tained his  ancient  name.  The  process  in  the  art 
was  simple.  The  artist  drew  his  picture  on  the 
flat  surface  of  the  block.  The  engraver's  business 
was  to  cut  away  every  particle  of  the  wood  which 
the  artist's  pencil  had  not  touched.  The  engraver 
never  left  a  line  of  his  own.  That  would  be  tam- 
pering with  the  artist's  work.  What  value  does 
any  one  place  on  a  work  of  Durer,  translated  into 
a  black  print  by  a  drawing  of  some  one  else?  There 
are  plenty  of  such  prints,  made  "after  Durer," 
which  are  of  no  account  in  comparison  with  an 
original  by  Durer. 

Thus  it  was  that  by  the  art  of  wood-engraving 
artists  were  enabled  to  use  the  printing-press  to 
disseminate  their  own  ideas,  precisely  as  authors 
used  it  for  their  pamphlets  and  books.  And  a  pic- 
ture is  written  language  always,  as  verily  as  is  a 
printed  page. 

In  our  day  wood-engraving,  as  we  know  it  in 
connection  with  the  great  artists  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  seems  to  be  a  lost  art.  The  new  art  now 
called  wood- en  graving,  has  sprung  from  the  ambi- 
tion, laudable  indeed,  of  the  form-schneider  of  old 
time  to  be  an  artist.  He  has  sought  to  do  on  wood, 
with  the  ordinary  printing-press,  what  the  copper- 
plate engraver  does  on  copper  and  steel — produce 
copies  of  the  works  of  artists.  His  pictures  are 


his  own  drawings,  not  those  of  the  artist.  His  work 
is  exquisite  in  execution,  his  skill  wonderful.  A 
new  style  of  picture  in  magazines  and  newspapers 
and  books  is  the  result.  Some  of  these,  when  proof 
impressions  are  taken  by  hand  with  great  care  and 
proper  distribution  of  pressure,  have  considerable 
resemblance  to  the  best  India-ink  work  by  artists. 
The  misfortune  of  the  new  art  is  that  printers'  ink 
and  printing-presses  will  hardly  ever  produce  two 
impressions  of  the  same  block  exactly  alike,  and 
will  not  give  effect  to  what  we  call  "color,"  even 
in  a  black  print.  Hence  the  monotonous  effect  of 
so  many  modern  wood-engravings.  But  I  do  not 
write  to  discuss  the  merit  of  the  modern  art  or  its 
products.  My  purpose  is  only  to  direct  attention 
to  the  fact  that  great  .artists  no  longer  use  the 
printing-press  as  their  means  of  reaching  the  peo- 
ple. They  are  content  to  be  translated  into  the 
productions  of  the  engraver's  art.  With  the  ut- 
most consideration  for  this  new  art  and  its  powers, 
it  is  undeniable  that  its  translations  are  sometimes 
fearful  libels  on  the  original  artists.  Not  long  ago 
a  friend  laid  on  my  table  a  proof  impression  of  a 
modern  wood-engraving  presented  to  him  for— 
what  it  was — a  specimen  of  the  highest  attain- 
ment in  the  modern  art.  When  his  back  was 
turned  I  laid  a  sheet  of  paper  over  the  middle, 
leaving  top  and  bottom  exposed.  Then  I  called 
his  attention  to  the  work  in  the  visible  upper 
part,  asking  him  what  it  represented.  He  said 
"clouds  and  sky;  pretty  well  done  too."  I  took 
off  the  paper  and  he  saw  that  the  print  was 
turned  upside  down  and  that  his  clouds  "pretty 
well  done"  were  in  truth  the  foreground  of  the 
picture— a  grass-covered  meadow  through  which 
wound  a  path. 

It  is  possible,  though  I  am  not  able  to  affirm  it, 
that  artists  can  no  longer  find  form-schneiders  of 
skill  who  will  do  the  servile  work  of  following  lines 
drawn  on  the  wood.  If  so,  then  the  old  art  is  lost, 
and  the  loss  to  the  world  is  inestimable.  In  every 
artist's  studio  are  more  or  less  of  his  sketches,  done 
in  pencil  in  line  work.  Sometimes  they  are  in  pen 
and  ink.  These  sketches,  as  all  students  and  lovers 
of  art  know,  are  in  great  measure  the  very  bone 
and  muscle,  the  anatomy  of  beautiful  works  in 
color.  They  are  full  of  instruction  and  value. 
Every  line  is  valuable,  and  the  addition  of  one 
line  would  destroy  the  purity  and  originality  of 
the  work.  Once,  if  the  artist  made  such  sketches 
on  wood,  they  were  reproduced  by  printing  and 
the  world  of  art  was  enriched.  It  is  so  no  longer. 
Pretty  much  all  that  we  know  of  our  great  artists 
now,  nearly  all  the  instruction  we  receive  from 
them,  is  by  their  paintings, — most  of  which  go 
into  private  houses, —  and  by  translations,  always 
feeble,  often  false.  Those  artists  who  consent  to 
draw  on  wood,  many  of  them  men  of  power,  seem 
content  to  be  translated.  Now  and  then  in  a  mag- 
azine or  book  some  little  cut,  evidently  engraved 
on  the  lines  of  the  artist,  shines  out  with  wonder- 
ful brilliance,  and  people  wonder  why  that  small 
cut  with  its  few  lines  so  impresses  them.  It  is 
because  these  are  the  last  glimmerings  of  the 
art  which  was  the  illumination  —  far  more  than 
painting  or  sculpture  —  of  Europe  in  the  sixteenth 
century. 

WM.  C.  PRIME. 


96 
NONPAREIL  No.  15.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     134  LINES,  1065  WORDS.' 


•n-   IGH    Dier   Cyrrh:     Eybowt   phiphty 

HBP*    yeers  agough,  eye  enterteigned  vews 

^   oph    thee    aurthograficle     kweschun 

BJBDJK|        kwight  cymilre  two  yewrs.     Mower 

:    rhescentleigh   ai  hav  rephlected  ohn 

jjk,      thea   psubjikt   ay  gould   diel,  aimed 

naph    scene    raezen    too    chainj    my 

ohpinyuns.       Uy   hav  dyskuvered  thath  they  karach- 

turistiks  oph  hour  Inggliesh  awerthograiphcigh  whitch 

yough  kaul  phaltz  arr  rheallee  merritz.     Yew  psaa  ey 

sownd  shood  haph  butte  wun  rheprhezentativ  ;    buth, 

ei  asch  yue,  iz  naut  anne  aurthografikle  cystim  chon- 

structid  onne  thaphth  pryncipal  ay  contemtibul  appharc 

buy  thae  cyde  oph  won  in  whitch  epheree  sownd  has 

twentie   rheprezenthathiphs  !      Yough    kumplein    uv 

psighlent    leththerz.      Inn    yewer   igknowrunts,    yeu 

phale  to  purseeve  thatte  wie  haph  know  cylunt  letters. 

Awl  thoughs  whitch  ue  kawl  sough  arr  mierleigh  kom- 

pownunt  parrhts  oph  buy-littorhal,  or  try-littorhal,  or 

multigh-littorhal    karrhackturz    yewzd   too   denought 

cympal  vokle  elemence.     Two  illustraight.     Thayp  iz 

ay  vokle  elemunt  kommunlcy  reprhezentid    by  thae 

karuktur  «.     Butte  thysse  iz  ekwallie  rheprhezcntid 

buy  ue,  eu,  ew,  ui,  ugh,  ough,  etc.,  etc.     Aynuther 

iz  rheprhezentid  buy  //  butte  yt  haz  az  ekwiphay- 

lunts  th  (az  inn  thy  me)  ^  tw  (az  inn  two),phth  (az 

inn  phthisic) .     Ai  thurd,  rheprezentid  buy_/",  haz  atte 

leeste  won  buy-littorhal  ekwivaylent,^/*. 

Nou  appligh  theeze  principuls  too  thie  spellynge  oph 
ai  wurred  kombigning  awl  theighr  phokle  elemense, 
anned  knowtiss  thoe  bewtiphul  varhietee  they  opphur 
two  ower  chawiss.  Wee  maigh  haphfreivt,  offruet, 
frughth,  or  phriewth,  or  phroughphth.  Inn  vue 
ov  possighbbilitiez  souch  az  theeze,  whitch  cy  dough 
naut  preethend  tou  eggsaust,  amme  ei  naut  jous- 
typhyde  inn  saighing,  "  Hcer's  writchness"  f 

Theigh  pholt  ov  ower  awrthaugraighfee  iz  not,  az 
eu  klaym,  thacht  ite  haz  too  menny  rheprhezeutha- 
tiphz  phaur  thee  saim  psownd  ;  ite  iz  phthath  itt  kon- 
phinz  eech  souch  phsownd  reprhesenphthayphthiph  too 
ay  gnarroe  wreinj  oph  yewse.  Iph,  ohn  thie  uther 
banned,  aul  theaz  eekwivalenth  psownd  reprcighsenn- 
taighthiphz  wur  maid  inndyskrimineightleigh  intur- 
chainjaybul,  aigh  paighg  oph  Ingleish  wood  preazent 
ai  vayrheed  anned  piktewrhesk  eppieranse,  troughleigh 
pliezing  tou  ey  kaurrhekth  thaisphth.  Hwot  iz  beth- 
thur,  thair  kood  bee  inn  souch  ai  cystim  know  psoch 
thyng  az  bachd  spealling  —  ay  sirkumstants  inphinit- 
leigh  konsouling  two  theigh  moulthithewds  hoo  nou 
auphthen  undurgough  untolled  agguniz  yn  eapisthol- 
ayrie  kompozishun,  bekaws,  lyche  Pinkee  Rhosebucide 
inn  thee  "Senturie  Magayzeen,"  theigh  kahnt  rhe- 
membyrrh  wheather  itt  shood  bee  ei  aur  ie ;  phaur, 
yew  cee,  ytt  wood  be  boath. 

Gnor  wood  thee  benniphitz  deryvde  frum  thisce 
scympliphikashun  uv  hour  methhodds  of  spellyng  bee 
konphinde  too  theigh  righters  oph  letturz.  Printterz 
andde  publischers  wood  fynd  phthemselphes  mutch  yn- 
debtebd,  pschaughthanned  prowphessors  wood  ak- 
noleidje  freight  ascisthar.se,  anned  skughlteitcherz  wud 
haph  knoughthynge  two  dough.  That  phthisz  wood 
beigh  begnefischul  noughboddeigh  wood  deneie. 

Sough,  cyrrh,  iph  igh  ephphur  undertaik  tou  wrhee- 
phawrm  hour  speillingue,  ai  shagl  doo  soe  buy 
thacheing  aigh  deepahrtewer  inn  theigh  dyrheckshun 
deyametrikkully  oppoughzit  too  ewers. 

Pherry  trewlie  yure  ohbedyunt  psurphunt, 

F.  A.  P.  BAHRKNAHRU. 


No  reasonable  man  questions  that  a  sweeping  change 
of  English  spelling  will  be  a  great  trial  to  the  genera- 
tions who  have  to  make  it ;  that  it  can  only  come  about 
as  the  result  of  a  period  of  anarchy,  and  will  involve  a 
breaking,  to  a  certain  extent,  with  the  past — a  past 
on  the  side  of  which  are  ranged  a  great  host  of  asso- 
ciations and  a  still  greater  one  of  prejudices.  The  re- 
form will  cost,  as  reforms  of  long  abuses  are  wont  to 
do,  a  heavy  price.  And  the  greatest  difficulty  will 
be  to  convince  the  generation  which  has  to  pay  the 
bulk  of  this  price  that  the  reform  is  worth  what 
it  costs. 

There  is  not  sufficient  force  in  the  consideration  that 
a  phonetic  spelling  is  truer,  that  it  realizes  the  ideal  of 
a  mode  of  writing,  that  its  adoption  aids  the  record  of 
the  history  of  the  language,  and  so  on.  These  are  well 
enough,  but  they  are  nothing  to  fight  for.  They  are 
not  half  so  efficacious  before  the  mind  of  the  general 
speller  as  is  his  attachment  to  what  he  is  accustomed  to. 
They  do  not  weigh  with  the  average  scholar  against  the 
satisfaction  he  takes  in  understanding  better  than  his 
less  instructed  neighbor  a  thing  which  both  of  them 
alike  have  to  use  —  for  this  is  what  his  plea  of  the  value 
of  a  "historical  spelling"  to  the  comprehension  of 
the  language  really  means.  Neville  and  Scroggs  both 
write  doubt  and  debt;  but  Neville's  knowledge  why 
there  is  a  b  in  these  words  is  almost  as  good  to  him  as 
a  decoration.  Nor  is  there  anything  really  effective  in 
the  possible  saving  of  time  and  space  by  dropping  out 
a  parcel  of  silent  letters.  Idle  rogues  they  are,  to  be 
sure,  that  well  deserve  to  be  sent  packing.  There  will 
be  some  satisfaction  in  giving  them  their  dues,  but  the 
gain  will  not  be  great. 

All  these  things  smack  of  sentimentality,  and  can  be 
met  and  neutralized  by  the  opposing  sentimentalities. 
Writing  is  a  purely  practical  art ;  it  was  devised  for 
practical  ends,  and  its  history  has  been  governed  and 
directed  by  such,  from  the  initial  stage  of  picture- 
making  and  hieroglyphics  down  to  the  perfected  pho- 
netic alphabet,  representing  sounds  only  and  sounds 
consistently,  in  which  it  has  finally  issued.  And  it 
plainly  must  be  a  purely  practical  consideration  that 
is  to  give  the  new  turn  to  the  history  of  English  orthog- 
raphy. 

Now  we  have  such  a  dominant,  practical  consideration, 
and  it  is  this:  The  immense  waste  of  time  and  effort 
involved  in  learning  the  present  orthography.  It  is  the 
generations  of  children  to  come  who  appeal  to  us  to  save 
them  from  the  affliction  which  we  have  endured  and 
forgotten.  It  has  been  calculated  over  and  over  again 
how  many  years  are,  on  an  average,  thrown  away  in  the 
education  of  every  child,  in  memorizing  that  intricate 
tangle  of  rules  and  exceptions  which  constitutes  Eng- 
lish so-called  orthography,  and  how  many  millions  of 
money  are  wasted  in  the  process  on  each  generation; 
and  it  has  been  pointed  out  how  imperfect  after  all  is 
the  result  reached  ;  how  many  learners  never  get  out  of 
the  stage  of  trying  to  learn  to  spell ;  how  much  easier  a 
better  result  could  be  attained  with  less  trouble  ;  how 
much  more  generally  the  first  step  in  education  —  read- 
ing—  could  be  successfully  taken,  if  we  had  a  purely 
phonetic  way  of  writing.  Yet  little  improvement  seems 
to  have  been  made. 

How  many  grow  puzzle-headed  over  this  dreadful 
difficulty  at  the  outset,  and  lose  courage  and  inclina- 
tion to  go  further,  perhaps  even  teachers  do  not  fully 
realize. 

W.  D.  WHITNEY,  Yale  College. 


97 
NONPAREIL  LIGHT  FACE.     DOUIILE  LEADED.    48  LINES,  628  WORDS. 


HE  present  mania  for  big  books  and  limited  editions  will  un- 
doubtedly wear  itself  out  in  time  ;  already  there  are  signs  that 
the  genuine  reader  is  becoming  weary  of  buying  his  literature 
by  weight.  At  first,  there  is  a  certain  pleasure  in  owning  a  "tall 
copy,"  no  matter  how  useless  its  contents;  and  the  pleasure  is 
increased  when  we  are  assured  that  only  a  couple  of  hundred 
other  people  can  possibly  possess  the  same  book  in  the  same  form.  But  the 
joy  is  not  forever.  A  book  is  not  any  the  more  readable  or  enjoyable  because 
it  can  have  only  a  few  readers,  and  even  the  luxury  of  wide  margin  and  extra 
binding  is  sometimes  doubtful  in  taste  and  incontestably  detrimental  to  real, 
profitable  study,  for  it  must  be  handled  with  great  care. 

Although  the  First  Editions  were  frequently  printed  from  corrupt  manu- 
scripts, written  by  ignorant  copyists  and  ignorant  correctors  and  printers, 
yet  the  modern  editions  de  luxe,  despite  the  care  and  cost  devoted  to  them, 
are  somehow  failures  when  compared  with  the  old  tall  copies.  The  Foulis 
Virgil  of  1778,  to  take  a  late  and  well-known  example,  is  a  pleasure  to  look 
at,  and  even  (in  moments  of  physical  vigor)  to  read.  Its  fine,  clear  type  fits 
its  page,  its  margins  are  not  out  of  proportion,  and  the  two  volumes  are  not 
so  thick  as  to  be  unwieldy  or  break  their  backs.  There  is  a  harmony  about, the 
whole  work  which  satisfies  the  taste.  In  our  modern  large  editions,  we  go  on 
a  different  and,  as  we  think,  a  very  inferior  principle.  A  fine  edition  now 
means  putting  a  splash  of  small  ignoble  type  in  the  middle  of  a  staring  expanse 
of  white  paper— paper,  as  a  rule,  dignified  with  the  title  of  "  hand-made,"  on 
the  strength  of  its  being  too  thick  and  stiff  to  turn  over  properly  or  lie  flat,  as 
it  should.  We  heap  these  buckram  pages  together  till  they  make  a  clumsy  vol- 
ume, which  we  put  into  a  white  vellum  or  parchment  or  calico  binding  that 
soils  with  the  slightest  touch;  we  scrawl  some  glaring  inscription  over  the 
sides,  and  call  the  result  an  "edition  de  luxe"!  Artistically,  the  thing  is  a 
mistake.  The  letterpress  should  fit  the  page,  in  spite  of  all  we  have  heard  of 
the  "neat  rivulet  of  text  meandering  through  a  meadow  of  margin"  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  though  margins  there  must  be— and  good  margins,  too  — 
they  must  be  in  strict  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  page.  Too  much  margin, 
though  better  than  too  little,  is  still  a  fault,  and  in  this,  as  in  everything  else, 
"  est  modus."  But  a  grave  error  is  the  modern  custom  of  putting  small  type  in 
big  pages,  and  trusting  to  the  wide  margins  to  make  amends.  The  type  as  well 
as  the  margin  must  be  proportioned  to  the  page,  and  big  books  ought  to  be  in 
big  type.  As  it  is,  we  fail  to  see  the  beauty  or  the  use  of  such  monster  volumes 
as  are  now  the  fashion.  It  is  all  very  well  to  have  a  fine  large  edition  of  the 
great  English  classics  —  like  those  of  Fielding  and  Thackeray  recently  pub- 
lished. Such  volumes  form  an  appropriate  mural  decoration  for  "  every 
English  gentleman's  library,"  as  the  conventional  country-house  smoking- 
room  is  called ;  but  if  we  want  to  read  and  profit  by  our  classical  authors,  we 
shall  probably  turn  to  some  more  portable  edition. 

"Whenever  one  sees  a  specimen  of  these  unreasonably  huge  tomes  one  is 
reminded  of  the  story  of  the  house  that  was  seemingly  irretrievably  on  fire, 
until  the  flames,  coming  in  contact  with  the  folio  Corpus  Juris  and  the 
Statutes  at  Large,  were  quite  unable  to  get  over  this  joint  barrier  and  sank 
defeated. 

SATURDAY  REVIEW. 


98 

NONPAREIL  No.  20.     LEADED.    60  LINES,  1132  WORDS. 


THE  operations  of  paper  making,  as  they  succeed  each  other,  are  as  follows:  The  rags  are 
washed,  if  requisite,  and  then  sorted.     They  are  bleached  to  render  them  white,  but  this  is 
sometimes  deterred  to  another  stage  of  the  process.     They  are  ground  with  water,  in  the 
washing-engine,  till  they  are  reduced  to  a  coarse  or  imperfect  pulp,  called  half-stuff,  in 
which  state  the  bleaching  is  sometimes  performed;   at  other  times  it  is  bleached  in  the 
engine.      The  half-stuff  is  ground  in  the  beating  engine,  and  water  added  in  sufficient 
quantity  to  make  a  fine  pulp,  which,  being  conveyed  to  the  vat,  the  sheets  of  paper  are 
made  by  taking  up  a  quantity  of  the  pulp  upon  a  mold  of  fine  wire  cloth,  through  which  the  water  drains 
away,  and  the  pulp  coagulates  into  a  sheet  of  paper;  to  take  this  off  the  wire  is  called  couching.     This  sheet 
is  put  in  a  pile  with  many  others,  with  a  felt  between  each,  and  the  whole  is  subjected  to  a  strong  pressure  to 
press  out  the  superfluous  water.     The  sheets  are  taken  out,  the  felts  removed,  and  the  sheets  of  paper  pressed 
again  by  themselves  for  a  certain  time.    The  sheets  are  taken  from  the  press  and  hung  up,  five  or  six  together, 
to  dry  in  the  drying-loft.     The  paper  is  dipped  into  a  tub  of  fine  size,  and  pressed  to  force  out  the  superfluity, 
after  which  it  is  dried  again ;  but  in  printing  papers  this  process  is  rendered  unnecessary  by  sizing  the  stuff 
while  in  the  engine,  by  adding  certain  ingredients.     The  paper  now  undergoes  an  examination  of  each  indi- 
vidual sheet,  and  all  knots  and  burs  are  removed,  and  bad  sheets  taken  out,  forming  the  casse  and  retree. 
The  dry  sheets  are  packed  in  a  very  large  pile,  and  pressed  with  immense  force  to  render  the  sheets  flat 
and  smooth.    The  paper  is  taken  out,  parted,  and  pressed  again.     "Parting"  means  to  take  down  the  pile 
sheet  by  sheet,  and  make  another  without  turning -the  sheet  over;  by  that  means  new  surfaces  are  brought  in 
contact  with  each  other,  and  the  surface  of  the  paper  is  improved.     The  paper  is  now  finished,  and  is  counted 
into  quires,  folded  (where  folding  is  required),  and  packed  up  in  reams  for  market. 

The  linen  rags  used  for  paper  making  are  of  five  qualities,  denominated  Nos.  i,  2,  3,  4  and  5,  according  to 
grade;  No.  i,  superfine,  being  all  linen,  the  remains  of  fine  cloth,  which,  not  being  so  much  worn  as  the 
coarser  sort,  is  used  for  making  the  finest  paper.  No.  5  is  coarse  canvas,  which,  by  bleaching,  may  be 
brought  to  a  good  color,  but  will  not  make  paper  of  the  strength  and  fineness  of  the  finer  grades.  The  next 
sort  is  rag  bagging,  a  poorer  canvas,  of  which  the  bags  are  made  for  packing  rags.  Colored  rags  are  gen- 
erally cotton  of  all  colors,  except  blue,  which  is  selected  for  making  blue  paper  only.  Superfine  paper  for 
writing  or  fine  printing  can  only  be  made  from  Nos.  i,  2,  and  3;  Nos.  4  and  5  are  appropriate  for  making  an 
inferior  paper  called  news,  because  used  for  newspapers.  Colored  rags  are  only  used  for  inferior  papers.  Woolen 
and  silk  rags  are  used  for  brown  paper,  but,  even  for  this  purpose,  they  require  a  mixture  of  a  better  grade  of 
rags.  Old  paper  may  also  serve  for  the  same  purpose,  but  the  waste  is  considerable.  It  is  reserved  in  some 
places  for  the  manufacture  of  pasteboard,  which  material  is  worked  in  less  time,  with  less  force,  and  with  the 
same  water.  It  will  also  lose  much  less.  Besides,  paper  that  has  been  once  sized,  though  passed  through 
boiling  water,  still  gives  the  pulp  a  viscidity  which  ought  to  be  guarded  against. 

The  rags,  when  first  brought  to  the  mill,  if  they  are  very  dirty,  as  the  coarse  sorts  generally  are,  are  washed 
in  hot  water  by  a  fulling  mill,  such  as  is  used  by  dyers  for  washing  cloth.  The  rags  being  well  dried,  are  (if 
they  have  not  been  previously  sorted  by  the  rag  merchant)  delivered  to  be  sorted  and  scraped.  This  work  is 
usually  given  to  women.  These  women  are  disposed  of  in  a  large  room  full  of  old  linen,  seated  two  by  two, 
on  benches,  with  a  large  chest  or  box  divided  into  five  cases  before  them,  for  containing  the  five  different  sorts 
of  rags  as  before  mentioned.  Each  has  a  piece  of  pasteboard  hung  from  her  girdle  and  extended  on  her  knees, 
upon  which,  with  a  long,  sharp  knife,  she  unrips  seams  and  stitches,  and  scrapes  off  all  filth.  Whatever  can 
be  used  after  being  well  shaken  is  distributed  into  the  three  cases,  according  to  the  degree  of  fineness,  and  the 
women  throw  the  rest  at  their  feet.  Those  manufacturers  who  choose  to  be  more  exact  in  their  sorting  have 
six  cases  for  different  sorts  of  rags:  the  superfine,  the  fine,  the  seams  and  stitches  of  the  fine,  the  middling, 
the  seams  and  stitches  of  the  middling,  and  the  coarse,  without  including  the  very  coarse  parts. 

Some  manufacturers  are  persuaded  that  the  labor  of  the  sorters  is  never  sufficiently  exact,  and  think  that  the 
hems  and  seams  should  be  kept  apart ;  that  the  coarseness  of  the  cloth  should  be  considered,  and  that  the 
cloth  made  of  tow  should  be  separated  from  that  made  of  longer  slips,  cloth  of  hemp  from  cloth  of  flax;  and, 
lastly,  that  the  degree  of  wearing  in  the  cloth  should  be  attended  to ;  for,  if  rags  which  are  almost  new  should 
be  mixed  with  those  that  are  much  worn,  the  one  will  not  be  reduced  to  a  pulp  in  the  mill,  while  the  other  will 
be  so  attenuated  as  to  be  carried  away  by  the  water  and  pass  through  the  hair  strainer,  and  hence  there  must 
be  a  considerable  waste  in  the  work,  a  real  loss  to  the  manufacturer  and  even  to  the  beauty  of  the  paper. 

This  is  not  all,  for  th;:  pulp  of  uneven  temerity  produces  those  cloudy  papers  wherein  are  seen,  by  inter- 
vals, parts  more  or  less  clear  and  more  or  less  weak,  occasioned  by  the  flakes  assembled  on  the  mold  in  mak- 
ing, the  paper  not  being  sufficiently  tempered  and  diluted  to  incorporate  with  the  more  fluid  parts. 

It  would,  therefore,  be  very  advisable  to  have  the  different  qualities  of  the  cloths  milled  separately,  and 
also  the  hems  and  threads  of  the  stitching;  because  sewing  thread,  being  never  so  much  worn  as  that  of  the 
cloth,  and  being  not  so  easy  to  be  reduced,  forms  filaments  in  the  paper.  This  great  precaution  in  the  serv- 
ing of  rags  is,  of  course,  very  expensive;  but  there  is  no  doubt  of  its  producing  a  total  difference  in  the  beauty 
of  the  paper,  without  hurting  its  goodness. 


99 
NONPAREIL  No.  22.     LEADED.    60  LINES,  1087  WORDS. 


HE  question  how  a  book  shall  be  bound  is  not  one  which  may  be  successfully  decided 
out  of  hand  by  any  one  who  has  never  thought  at  all  about  the  matter.  True,  color 
and  gilding  and  design  have  a  certain  value  irrespective  of  fitness,  but  when  we  find 
that  fitness  has  been  violated,  the  object  itself  becomes,  at  least  to  a  certain  degree, 
offensive.  The  first  requisite  in  the  binding  of  a  book  is,  of  course,  that  the  book 
shall  be  well  protected  and  shall  be  easily  and  comfortably  usable.  A  book  bound 
so  that  it  cannot  be  easily  opened,  or  so  that  when  opened  and  read  its  leaves  work 
loose  and  are  cast  out,  or  so  that  it  becomes  uncomfortably  heavy,  or  with  excrescences  upon  it,  in  the 
way  of  metal  or  other  knobs,  or  deep  leather  panels,  is  an  absurdity  and  a  nuisance.  It  had  better  been 
left  in  pasteboard  or  in  paper.  But  supposing  this  part  of  the  work  well  done,  there  remains  the  ques- 
tion, all  important  from  the  decorative  art  point  of  view,  of  the  fitness  of  the  binding  and  the  ornaments 
put  upon  it.  The  style  of  binding  in  which  books  do  too  often  appear  makes  it  manifest  that  to  most 
persons,  and  even  to  most  binders,  this  question  of  fitness  does  not  occur.  And  yet  it  is  important,  and 
would  seem  almost  obvious.  Crushed  levant  morocco,  crimson,  blue,  yellow,  or  olive,  with  gilt  edges 
for  the  leaves,  is  a  very  handsome  and  a  most  durable  style  of  binding ;  but  it  is  not  fit  for  all  books. 
What  taste  could  be  so  dull  and  indiscriminating  as  not  to  be  offended  by  seeing  a  ledger  or  a  day-book 
so  bound,  or  a  city  directory,  or  a  dictionary  !  If  this  be  admitted,  all  is  admitted ;  for  the  question  of 
fitness  is  then  recognized,  and,  consistently,  the  rule  of  fitness  must,  within  reasonable  limits,  be  fol- 
lowed. It  is  on  this  ground  of  fitness  that  the  contempt  of  the  great  French  binders  for  any  other  ma- 
terial than  levant  morocco  is  an  artistic  fault ;  and,  as  to  the  result,  it  leads  them  to  bind  books  in  this 
style  which  are  almost  as  much  out  of  place  in  their  rich  and  elaborate  dresses  as  a  ring  of  gold  in 
a  swine's  snout.  Some  of  their  best  bindings  are  positively  displeasing  on  this  account. 

How,  then,  shall  books  be  bound  fitly,  beautifully,  and  so  as  to  please  the  eye  of  taste  which  looks  be- 
yond mere  surface  ?  In  the  first  place,  before  we  get  to  the  outside  of  the  book,  and  after,  as  we  sup- 
pose, the  leaves  are  well  put  together,  the  margins  should  not  be  cut  down.  Margin  is  as  important 
in  binding  books  as  in  calculating  expenses  or  in  buying  stocks.  A  book  with  its  margins  cut  down 
will  be  a  mean-looking  book  if  it  is  bound  in  gold ;  and  yet  so  rabid  are  most  binders  about  cutting 
down  margins  that  to  preserve  the  little  shred  of  paper  it  is  almost  necessary  to  stand  over  them  with 
a  drawn  sword.  As  to  the  cover  and  decoration  of  a  book,  that  should  be  decided  by  the  character  of 
its  contents,  and  by  the  use  to  which  it  is  to  be  put.  Books  of  reference,  dictionaries,  encyclopedias, 
hand-books,  text-books,  and  the  like  should  be  strongly  bound  in  calf,  or  in  very  dark  morocco,  without 
ornament  of  any  kind,  and  all  the  edges  should  be  cut  and  either  marbled  or  speckled.  They  are  arti- 
cles merely  of  use,  and  ornament  upon  them  is  offensively  out  of  place.  You  might  as  well  gild  a 
boot-jack.  Next  come  books  of  a  sober  and  solid  cast,  histories,  travels,  scientific  works,  and  the  like. 
These  are  appropriately  bound  in  handsome  calf,  with  gilded  backs  and  marbled  edges.  Much  orna- 
ment and  gilt  edges  are  inconsistent  with  the  sobriety  of  their  character,  and  also  with  the  fact  that 
when  read  they  are  held  long  in  the  hand  and  subjected  to  a  somewhat  trying  usage.  Gilding,  however, 
preserves  the  back  of  a  book,  and  the  polishing  of  the  edges  for  the  marbling  presents  a  surface  into 
which  dust  cannot  penetrate.  When  we  come  to  poetry,  belles-lettres,  books  on  art,  and  those  in  which 
their  illustrations  are  a  very  important  part  of  their  attraction,  we  reach  the  proper  region  of  morocco 
and  gilding.  Poetry  is  to  a  certain  degree  out  of  place  in  calf.  For  tree-stained  calf  there  has  been 
a  craze  among  certain  book-lovers,  and  they  have  even  put  Shakspere  and  Spenser  and  Chaucer  and 
Browning  into  that  dress — a  fault  of  incongruity,  in  our  judgment.  All  this  class  of  books  —  that  is, 
poetry,  belles-lettres,  and  books  on  art— should  be  honored  with  morocco  and  decoration  to  the  extent  of 
the  owner's  ability  and  willingness  to  pay  for  them ;  otherwise  they  may  be  much  better  left  in  their  native 
cloth  or  board  binding.  There  may  be  even  a  fitness  of  color  and  decoration  to  the  author.  For  example, 
Shakspere  in  a  dozen  volumes  would  not  appear  well  in  yellow  or  light-blue  morocco ;  but  such  a  dress 
would  well  befit  a  single  volume  of  songs  or  some  quaint  old  rarity  of  not  too  grave  a  cast.  Upon  one 
point  the  book-bindee  should  be  careful,  in  regard  to  this  class  of  books  :  only  the  top  edge  should  be 
cut  and  gilt ;  the  margin  on  the  fore  and  bottom  edges  should  be  left  untouched.  To  shave  them  smooth 
is  abominable  in  the  eyes  of  all  real  book-lovers.  Works  upon  art,  illustrated  books,  and  the  like,  which 
are  often  large,  may  well  be  bound  in  half-morocco,  with  the  top  edges  gilt.  This  is  a  serviceable  as 
well  as  an  appropriate  and  handsome  binding.  It  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  morocco  is  the  most 
lasting  and  flexible  material  in  which  a  book  can  be  bound.  Russia  leather  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 
It  becomes  dry,  cracks  at  the  hinges,  and  looks  shabby.  Vellum  is  to  be  used  sparingly  and  with  great 
discretion  for  special  purposes.  These  general  rules  will  be  a  safe  guide  to  the  book-lover  who  is  will- 
ing to  spend  some  money  on  his  favorites.  If  he  does  not  violate  them,  his  books  will  be  a  delight  to  the 
eye  as  well  as  food  for  the  mind.  But  prettily  as  books  are  now  bound  in  muslin,  if  they  are  carefully 
used  and  tastefully  arranged,  they  may  be  made  great  helps  to  the  attractive  appearance  of  the  living 
parlor  of  a  refined  household. 

NEW-YORK  TIMES. 


IOO 


AGATE  No.  13.    TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS. 
72  LINES,  569  WORDS. 


AGATE  No.  12.     TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS. 
72  LINES,  599  WORDS. 


AMUEL  WOOD  WORTH,  the 
author  of  "The  Old  Oaken 
Bucket,"  was  born  in  Scit- 
uate,  Mass.,  January  13, 
1785.  He  has  been  called  the 
American  Goldsmith.  He  be- 
gan to  write  poetry  when 
only  about  fifteen  years  of 

age.    About  1800,  after  liaviug 

attended  a  country  school  during  the  winter  months 
and  .acquired  a  scanty  education,  he  became  a  print- 
er's apprentice  in  Boston  and  served  for  six  years. 
During  this  period  he  contributed  verses  to  various 
periodicals.  Leaving  Boston  to  escape  imprisonment 
for  debt  he  started  on  foot  for  New  York,  but  finding 
himself  without  money  he  stopped  at  New  Haven. 
There  he  remained  nearly  a  year,  wrote  verses  and 
established  a  literary  journal  of  his  own,  which  failed. 
He  wandered  off,  another  strolling  Goldsmith,  and 
in  1808  found  himself  in  Baltimore.  In  1810  he  was 
married  in  New  York.  He  there  engaged  in  various 
literary  enterprises,  united  for  a  time  the  labors  of 
an  author  with  those  of  a  foreman  of  a  composing- 
room  and  a  proofreader,  and  met  with  very  moder- 
ate success.  He  was  brilliant  and  versatile,  without 
being  precisely  a  genius;  the  light  of  his  talent  was 
not  a  glaring  flame,  but  a  soft,  steady  radiance  that 
charmed  from  its  lack  of  ambitious  display.  Sev- 
eral editions  of  his  poems  were  published.  Such  men 
as  Webster,  Chauning,  Irving,  and  Sir  Walter  Scott 
spoke  in  his  praise.  He  died  in  1842. 

A  story,  which  for  some  years  was  generally  re- 
ceived as  correct,  was  to  the  effect  that  Wood 
worth's  celebrated  poem, "  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket," 
had  its  origin  in  the  author's  love  of  liquor,  and  was 
first  suggested  to  him  in  a  remorseful  moment  in 
a  Bowery  tavern.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  011 
returning  one  sultry  day  to  his  home  on  Duaue 
Street  from  his  office  in  the  region  of  lower  Wall 
Street  he  drank  a  glass  of  water  from  one  of  the 
old-time  pumps  of  the  neighborhood,  and  remarked : 
"That  is  very  refreshing,  but  how  much  more  re- 
freshing would  it  be  to  take  a  good  long  draiight 
from  the  old  oaken  bucket  I  left  hanging  in  my 
father's  well  at  home."  The  poet's  wife  thereupon 
remarked:  "Why  would  n't  that  be  a  good  sub- 
ject for  a  poem."  The  poet,  taking  the  hint,  sat 
down,  and  from  the  depths  of  his  heart  poured  out 
the  lines  which  millions  have  since  read  with  varied 
emotions.  Drunkards  in  rags,  lost  men  of  talent, 
hopelessly  enslaved  by  the  love  of  drink,  have  re- 
peated those  lines  in  bar-rooms,  and  cried  like  chil- 
dren at  the  thought  of  the  orchard,  the  meadow,  the 
deep-tangled  wildwood,  and  the  moss-covered  buck- 
et dripping  with  coolness  as  it  rose  from  the  well 
which  their  own  infancy  knew. 

Little  is  known  of  this  once  noted  printer  by  the 
present  generation.  Traces  of  his  life  have  almost 
been  obliterated,  and  of  all  his  writings  this  famous 
poem  is  his  only  memorial. 


How  sweet  from  the  green  mossy  brim  to  receive  it, 

As,  poised  on  the  curb,  it  inclined  to  my  lips ! 
Not  a  full  blushing  goblet  could  tempt  me  to  leave  it, 

Though  filled  with  the  nectar  that  Jupiter  sips. 
And  now,  far  removed  from  the  loved  situation, 

The  tear  of  regret  will  intrusively  swell, 
As  fancy  reverts  to  my  father's  plantation, 

And  sighs  for  the  bucket  that  hangs  in  the  well ; 
The  old  oaken  bucket,  the  iron-bound  bucket, 
The  moss-covered  bucket  which  hangs  in  the  well. 


FAULTS  in  woodcuts  annoying  to  printers : 

Bad  surfacing.  A  thick  coat  of  flake  white,  or 
a  thin  coat  with  gum  and  water,  deceives  the  en- 
graver as  to  the  depth  of  the  line  he  is  cutting, 
makes  an  insoluble  compound  with  the  ink  used 
in  proving  up,  which  can  never  be  entirely  re- 
moved, which  s  wells  up  in  little  blotches  and  pre- 
vents the  electrotyper  from  getting  a  smooth  sur- 
face for  a  solid  block.  An  over-surfaced  block  is 
sure  to  cause  grimy  blocks  and  muddy  tints. 

Shallow  cutting.  Proper  allowance  should  be 
made  for  the  facts  that  nearly  all  woodcuts  are 
printed  from  electrotype  plates  in  very  large 
forms,  on  machine  presses  at  high  speed,  with 
cheaper  ink,  and  on  paper  much  inferior  to  that 
used  for  the  proof.  A  faint  white  line  that  scarce- 
ly shows  in  the  trial  proof  on  the  wood,  will  not 
show  at  all  in  the  electrotype.  A  dark  gray  tint 
meeting  with  solid  black  which  can  hardly  be 
kept  clean  with  hand-rolling,  live-dollar  ink,  and 
plate  paper,  will  surely  print  muddily  when  done 
on  a  machine  with  inferior  materials. 

Uneven  cutting.  If  the  counters  of  the  white 
lines  in  a  smooth  tint  have  been  cut  jagged,  by 
many  uneven  strokes  of  the  tint  tool,  producing 
an  appearance  in  the  counter  like  long  saw-teeth, 
and  the  tool  has  not  been  returned  in  the  opposite 
direction,  the  spurs  made  by  these  jags  will  pre- 
vent the  return  of  the  molding-wax  after  mold- 
ing. The  wax  broken  off  in  the  cut  will  necessa- 
rily produce  dirty  little  blotches  in  the  tint  which 
are  usually,  but  wrongfully,  attributed  to  bad  ink 
and  bad  electrotyping. 

Undercutting.  The  counter  of  a  line  should 
never  be  perpendicular  with,  or  undercut,  the 
face  of  the  line.  This  fault  is  most  noticeable  in 
the  treatment  of  skies,  when  the  fine  lines  of  a 
cloud  are  connected  with  the  coarser  wide  lines 
of  the  flat  sky,  and  also  in  the  curved  lines  used 
for  shading  human  limbs  and  faces.  If  the  coun- 
ter is  undercut,  the  thin  line  of  the  face  bends 
under  the  pressure  of  the  molding  wax,  and  is 
consequently  molded  partly  on  its  side,  producing 
a  thick  and  ragged  line.  Sometimes  the  wood 
gaps,  and  sometimes  it  sinks,  making  the  "  rotten 
sky"  which  is  altogether  too  common  in  electro- 
types. At  this  point  it  may  be  well  to  say  that 
the  pressure  required  in  molding  two  pages  of 
The  Century  is  estimated  by  the  electrotyper  at 
one  thousand  pounds  for  every  square  inch.  It  is 
obvious  that  every  line  that  is  undercut  must  be 
more  or  less  distorted  by  the  pressure. 

Bad  shouldering.  The  hair-line  borders  of  wood- 
cuts are  generally  cut  without  shoulders  — in 
some  instances  almost  perpendicular  with  the 
face.  It  is  almost  impossible  to  mold  these  lines 
without  breaking  the  line  with  one  or  more  gaps, 
or  without  thickening  or  raggedness.  The  bor- 
der line  should  always  have  a  well-defined  angling 
shoulder  A  to  insure  its  safety  in  molding. 

Unfair  proving.  The  right  and  indeed  the  duty 
of  an  engraver  to  give  a  proof  of  his  work  in  the 
highest  style  in  which  it  can  be  done  by  legitimate 
printing.will  not  be  questioned,  but  proofs  as  usu- 
ally taken  are  really  specimens  not  of  fine  print- 
ing but  of  artful  painting.  The  common  practices 
of  washing  out  and  wiping  out  skies  and  pale  gray 
tints,  thereby  changing  a  black  into  a  gray  ink, 
and  of  concealing  false  cuts,  and  of  reducing  the 
width  of  white  lines  by  overloading  the  solids 
with  black  ink,  may  be  justly  objected  to  as  gross- 
ly unfair. 


101 


PEARL  No.  20.     TEN-TO-PICA  LEADS.     160  LINES,  1578  WORDS. 


ETRARCH  said  of  his  books,  con- 
sidered as  his  friends  :  "  I  have 
friends  whose  society  is  extremely 
agreeable  to  me ;  they  are  of  all 
ages,  and  of  every  country.  They 
have  distinguished  themselves 
both  in  the  cabinet  and  in  the 
field,  and  obtained  high  honors  for 
their  knowledge  of  the  sciences. 
It  is  easy  to  gain  access  to  them, 
my  service,  and  I  admit  them  to 
hem  from  it,  whenever  I  please. 


for  they  are  always  at  m 
my  company,  and  dismiss 
They  are  never  troublesome,  but  immediately  answer  every 
question  I  ask  them.  Some  relate  to  me  the  events  of  the 
past  ages,  while  others  reveal  to  me  the  secrets  of  nature. 
Some  teach  me  how  to  live,  and  others  how  to  die.  Some, 
by  their  vivacity,  drive  away  my  cares  and  exhilarate  my 
spirits,  while  others  give  fortitude  to  my  mind,  and  teach 
me  the  important  lesson  how  to  restrain  my  desires  and  to 
depend  wholly  on  myself.  They  open  to  me,  in  short,  the 
various  avenues  of  all  the  arts  and  sciences,  and  upon  their 
information  I  safely  rely  in  all  emergencies." 

Reading  is  the  fuel  of  the  mind  ;  and,  the  mind  once  on 
fire,  any  and  all  material  will  feed  the  flame,  provided  only 
it  have  any  combustible  matter  in  it.  And  we  cannot  tell 
from  what  quarter  the  next  material  will  come.  The 
thought  we  need,  the  facts  we  are  in  search  of,  may  make 
their  appearance  in  the  corner  of  a  newspaper,  or  in  some 
forgotten  volume  long  ago  consigned  to  dust  and  oblivion. 
Hawthorne,  in  the  parlor  of  a  country  inn,  on  a  rainy  day, 
could  find  mental  nutriment  in  an  old  directory.  That 
accomplished  philologist,  the  late  Lord  Strangford,  could 
find  ample  amusement  for  an  hour's  delay  at  a  railway 
station  in  tracing  out  the  etymology  of  the  names  in  Brad- 
shaw.  The  mind  that  is  not  awake  and  alive  will  find  a 
library  a  barren  wilderness. 

A  book  that  is  worth  reading  all  through  is  pretty  sure  to 
make  its  worth  known.  There  is  something  in  the  literary 
conscience  which  tells  a  reader  whether  he  is  wasting  his 
time  or  not.  An  hour  or  a  minute  may  be  sufficient  oppor- 
tunity for  forming  a  decision  concerning  the  worth  or 
worthlessness  of  the  book.  If  it  is  utterly  bad  and  valueless, 
then  skip  the  whole  of  it,  as  soon  as  you  have  made  the  dis- 
covery. If  a  part  is  good  and  a  part  bad,  accept  the  one 
and  reject  the  other.  If  you  are  in  doubt,  take  warning  at 
the  first  intimation  that  you  are  misspending  your  opportu- 
nity and  frittering  away  your  time  over  an  unprofitable 
book.  Reading  that  is  of  questionable  value  is  not  hard  to 
find  out ;  it  bears  its  notes  and  marks  in  unmistakable 
plainness,  and  it  puts  forth,  all  unwittingly,  danger  signals 
which  the  reader  should  heed. 

The  art  of  skipping  is,  in  a  word,  the  art  of  noting  and 
shunning  that  which  is  bad,  or  frivolous,  or  misleading,  or 
unsuitable  for  one's  individual  needs.  If  you  are  con- 
vinced that  the  book  or  the  chapter  is  bad,  you  cannot 
drop  it  too  quickly.  If  it  is  simply  idle  and  foolish,  put  it 
away  on  that  account.  If  it  is  deceitful  and  disingenuous, 
your  task  is  not  so  easy,  but  your  conscience  will  give  you 
warning,  and  the  sharp  examination  which  should  follow 
will  tell  you  that  you  are  in  poor  literary  company. 

Admitting  the  utility  of  the  reading  of  periodicals,  and 
even  insisting  upon  the  necessity  and  duty  of  reading 
them,  it  must  nevertheless  be  said  in  the  plainest  manner 
that  an  alarming  amount  of  time  is  wasted  over  them,  or 
worse  than  wasted.  When  we  have  determined  that  news- 
papers and  magazines  ought  to  be  read,  let  us  by  no  means 
flatter  ourselves  that  all  our  reading  of  them  is  commend- 
able or  justifiable.  1  am  quite  safe  in  saying  that  the  indi- 
vidual who  is  reading  these  lines  wastes  more  than  half  the 
time  that  he  devotes  to  periodicals.  "  To  learn  to  choose 
what  is  valuable  and  skip  the  rest,"  is  a  good  rule  for 
reading  periodicals  ;  and  it  is  a  rule  whose  observance  will 
prevent  the  reader  from  falling  into  that  demoralizing  and 
altogether  disgraceful  inability  to  hold  the  mind  upon  any 
continuous  subject  of  thought  or  study,  which  is  sure  to 
follow  in  the  train  of  thoughtless  reading  of  periodicals. 
And  when,  as  too  often  happens,  a  man  comes  to  read  noth- 
ing save  his  morning  paper  at  breakfast  or  on  the  train, 
and  his  evening  paper  after  his  work  is  over,  that  man's 
brain,  so  far  as  reading  is  concerned,  is  only  half  alive. 


CONSIDER  what  you  have  in  the  smallest  chosen  library. 
A  company  of  the  wisest  and  wittiest  men  that  could  be 
picked  out  of  all  civil  countries  in  a  thousand  years  have 
set  in  best  order  the  results  of  their  learning  and  wisdom. 
The  men  themselves  were  hid  and  inaccessible,  solitary, 
impatient  of  interruption,  fenced  by  etiquette ;  but  the 
thought  which  they  did  not  uncover  to  their  bosom  friend 
is  here  written  out  in  transparent  words  to  us,  the  strangers 
of  another  age.  We  owe  to  books  those  general  benefits 
which  come  from  high  intellectual  action.  Thus,  I  think, 
we  often  owe  to  them  the  perception  of  immortality. 
They  impart  sympathetic  activity  to  the  moral  power. 
Go  with  mean  people,  and  you  think  life  is  mean.  Then 
read  Plutarch,  and  the  world  is  a  proud  place,  peopled 
with  men  of  a  positive  quality,  with  heroes  and  demigods 
standing  around  us,  who  will  not  let  us  sleep. 

Colleges,  while  they  provide  us  with  libraries,  furnish  no 
professor  of  books  ;  and,  I  think,  there  is  no  chair  so  much 
wanted.  In  a  library  we  are  surrounded  by  many  hundreds 
of  dear  friends,  but  they  are  imprisoned  by  an  enchanter 
in  these  paper  and  leather  boxes;  and  though  they  know 
us,  and  have  been  waiting  two,  ten,  or  twenty  centuries 
for  us — some  of  them  —  and  are  eager  to  give  us  a  sign, 
and  unbosom  themselves,  it  is  the  law  of  their  limbo  that 
they  must  not  speak  until  spoken  to  ;  and  as  the  enchanter 
has  dressed  them,  like  battalions  of  infantry,  in  coat  and 
jacket  of  one  cut,  by  the  thousand  and  ten  thousand,  your 
chance  of  hitting  on  the  right  one  is  to  be  computed  by 
the  arithmetical  rule  of  permutation  and  combination  — 
not  a  choice  out  of  three  caskets,  but  out  of  half  a  million 
caskets  all  alike.  But  it  happens,  in  our  experience,  that 
in  this  lottery  there  are  at  least  fifty  or  a  hundred  blanks 
to  a  prize.  It  seems,  then,  as  if  some  charitable  soul,  after 
losing  a  great  deal  of  time  among  the  false  books,  and 
alighting  upon  a  few  true  ones  which  made  him  happy 
and  wise,  would  do  a  right  act  in  naming  those  which 
have  been  bridges  or  ships  to  carry  him  safely  over  dark 
morasses  and  barren  oceans  into  the  heart  of  sacred  cities, 
into  palaces  and  temples.  This  would  be  best  done  by 
those  great  masters  of  books  who  from  time  to  time  ap- 
pear—the Fabricii,  the  Seldens,  Magliabecchis,  Scaligers, 
Mirandolas,  Bayles,  Johnsons,  whose  eyes  sweep  the  whole 
horizon  of  learning. 

Next  to  the  originator  of  a  good  sentence  is  the  first 
quoter  of  it.  Many  will  read  the  book  before  one  thinks  of 
quoting  a  passage.  As  soon  as  he  has  done  this,  that  line 
will  be  quoted  east  and  west.  Then  there  are  great  ways  of 
borrowing.  Genius  borrows  nobly.  When  Shakspere  is 
charged  with  debts  to  his  authors,  Landor  replies:  "Yet 
he  was  more  original  than  his  originals.  He  breathed 
upon  dead  bodies  and  brought  them  into  life."  And  we 
must  thank  Karl  Ottfried  Muller  for  the  just  remark, 
"  Poesy,  drawing  within  its  circle  all  that  is  glorious  and 
inspiring,  gave  itself  but  little  concern  as  to  where  its 
flowers  originally  grew."  So  Voltaire  usually  imitated, 
but  with  such  superiority  that  Dubuc  said :  "  He  is  like 
the  false  Amphitryon  ;  although  the  stranger,  it  is  always 
he  who  has  the  air  of  being  master  of  the  house."  Words- 
worth, as  soon  as  he  heard  a  good  thing,  caught  it  up, 
meditated  upon  it,  and  very  soon  reproduced  it  in  his  con- 
versation and  writing.  If  De  Quincey  said,  "  That  is  what 
I  told  you,"  he  replied,  "No;  that  is  mine  — mine,  and 
not  yours."  On  the  whole,  we  like  the  valor  of  it.  'T  is 
on  Marmontel's  principle,  "  I  pounce  on  what  is  mine, 
wherever  I  find  it,"  and  on  Bacon's  broader  rule,  "  I  take 
all  knowledge  to  be  my  province."  It  betrays  the  con- 
sciousness that  truth  is  the  property  of  no  individual,  but 
is  the  treasure  of  all  men.  And  in  so  far  as  any  writer  has 
ascended  to  a  just  view  of  man's  condition,  he  has  adopted 
this  tone.  In  so  far  as  the  receiver's  aim  is  on  life,  and  not 
on  literature,  will  be  his  indifference  to  the  source.  The 
nobler  the  truth  or  sentiment,  the  less  imports  the  question 
of  authorship.  It  never  troubles  the  simple  seeker  from 
whom  he  derived  such  or  such  a  sentiment.  Whoever 
expresses  to  us  a  just  thought  makes  ridiculous  the  pains 
of  the  critic  who  should  tell  him  where  such  a  word  had 
been  said  before.  But  it  is  as  difficult  to  appropriate  the 
thoughts  of  others,  as  it  is  to  invent.  Some  steep  transi- 
tion, some  sudden  alteration  of  temperature,  or  point  of 
view,  betrays  the  foreign  interpolation. 


CHAS.  F.  RICHARDSON. 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


102 


BRILLIANT,  ROMAN  AND  ITALIC. 


BRILLIANT.     SOLID. 


E  are  as  much  informed  of  >  writer1!  geniu.  by  what 
he    .elect,  a,  by  what  he  originate..     We    read    the 
quotation  with  hi.  eye*  and  find  a  n.w  and  fervent  .entt  ; 


W 


e  poeta,  well  recited,  borrows 
ering.  A.  the  journal,  say, 
e  profit  of  book.  i.  according  to 


••The  italic.  are™ur.."  The  profit  of  book,  is  according  to 
the  .ensibility  of  the  reader.  The  profounde.t  thought  or 
passion  deeps  as  in  a  mine  until  an  equal  mind  and  heart 
finds  and  publishes  it.  ... 

In  hours  of  high  mental  activity  we  K>metime»  do  the 
book  too  much  honor,  reading  out  of  it  better  things  than 
the  author  wrote  — reading,  as  we  say,  between  the  line.. 
You  have  had  the  like  experience  in  conversation  :  the 
wit  was  in  what  you  heard,  not  in  what  the  speakers  said. 
Our  be.t  thought  came  from  others.  We  heard  in  their 
words  a  deeper  sense  than  the  speakers  put  into  them,  and 
could  express  ourselves  in  other  people's  phrases  to  finer 
purpose  than  they  knew.  .  .  . 

We  cannot  overstate  our  debt  to  the  Fast,  but  the  mo- 
ment ha.  the  .upreme  claim.  The  Past  i.  for  us ;  but  the 
sole  terms  on  which  it  can  become  our.  are  its  subordi- 
nation to  the  Present.  Only  an  inventor  knows  how  to 
borrow,  and  every  man  is  or  should  be  an  inventor.  We 
must  not  tamper  with  the  organic  motion  of  the  soul. 

th^hfnt.'whieh  nlslTfrom  if, 'th"w"rds°ovjrheard  at  un- 
awares by  the  free  mind,  are  trustworthy  and  fertile,  when 
obeyed,  and  not  perverted  to  low  and  selfish  account.  This 
vast  memory  is  only  raw  material.  The  divine  gift  ift  ever 
the  instant  life,  which  receive.  au.l  uses  and  creates,  and 
can  well  bury  the  old  in  the  omnipotency  with  which  Na- 

f  decomposes  all  her  harvest  for  ren 

,  is  a  tie  betwei 


BRILLIANT  ITALIC.     SOLID. 


BRILLIANT  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


JTHISK  we  should  all  of  u,  be  grateful  for  boot,  .-  they  are 
our  bea  friend,  and  most  faithful  companion,.  They  in- 
struct,  cheer,  elevate,  and  ennoble  u,  :  and  in  whatever  mood 
w«  yo  to  them,  they  never  frown  upon  us,  but  receive  u,  with 
cordial  and  lovimi  ..,,o-,-ir,.  Xritber  .(„  tli'ii  blab,  or  tell  tale, 
of  u,  when  we  are  gone  to  the  next  comer  :  but  honestly,  and 
with  manly  /rani,,,..,  tl,,nl-  („  „,„•  hf.irts  in  admonition  or 
encouragement.  1  do  not  know  how  it  is  with  other  men.  but 
lhavesomuch  revrrracr  i'nr  these  nilfnt  and  beautiful  friend, 
that  I  feel  in  them  to  have  an  immortal  possession,  which  i, 
more  valuable  to  me  than  many  estates  and  kingdoms. 

The  choice  of  books  is  not  the  least  part  of  the  duty  of  a 
Kholar.  If  he  would  become  a  man,  and  worthy  to  deal 
with  manlitt  thing*  he  must  read  only  the  bravest  and  no- 
blest  book,  :  boots  forned  at  the  heart  'and  fashioned  by  the 
intellect  of  a  godlike  man.  A  clever,  interesting  writer  it  a 
clever,  intereUing  fool,  and  i,  no  master  for  the  scholar  I 
•peak  of.  Our  literature  abound,  with  such  person,,  and  will 
abound  with  them  so  long  as  the  public  mind  remains  diseased 
with  this  morbid  love  of  ••  light  reading."  We  have  exchanged 
rthe  commonwealth's  men  for  the  nim- 


ble foot  of  t 


!  fain  cult, 


idloveoflig 
•amp  of  the  Co 
,  lamplighter  : 


tendencies  of  I 


id  the  thief- 
*and"afm{r™Welhn'v',J'eh1adnen 


fat.,. 


•  world  in  thei,   ,t*d,  „/  I, 
all  study  i,  action,  and  1 
ba-lams  in  favor  of  the  Kholar.     Bui  a  c 
slon  i,  neciuary  for  culture  in  the  first  , 


a  higher  , 
.  exclusion 


greilive  development,  t 
mind  will  not  be  play. 


"or  the  laws  of  the  intellect, 
:  as  stern  and  binding  a, 
cannot  neglect  or  violate  them  wi 
te  book,  should  be  our  constant  coj 
t  thought,  and  hold  a  man  to  his  t 


lot  culture  afterward,.     The  human 
nth,  or  the  planer  will  find  it  out  to 

.-!..-• 


•piritvnl 
tier,  and 


i  los,  or  nfering. 


«.  S.  PHILLIPS. 


oo. 

0.0, 


torrowt,  shortcoming,,  miterie,,  and  misadventure,,  that 
a  chapter  of  aid  or  consolation  never  come,  ami,,,  1  think. 
There  i,  a  pitiless,  pelting  rain  this  morning  :  heavily  againtt 
my  study  window,  drive,  the  northwestern  gate :  and  altogether 
it  i,  a  very  fit  day  for  working  at  such  a  chapter.  The  indoor 
comfort,  which  enable  one  to  resent  with  composure  —  nay, 
even  to  welcome  -  this  outward  conflict  and  hubbub  are  like 
the  plan,  and  resource,  provided  by  philosophy  and  religion 
to  meet  the  various  calamities  driven  against  the  soul  in  it, 
pauage  through  thi:  Oormy  world.  The  boot,  which  reward 
me  have  been  found  an  equal  retource  in  both  reqiecU.  both 
again,!  the  weather  from  without  and  from  within  —  against 
phyrical  and  mental  storm,  ;  and,  if  it  might  be  K,  I  would 
pom  on  to  other,  the  comfort  which  a  stasonalle  word  hat 
often  brought  to  me.  If  I  were  to  loot  round  thete  ihelve,, 
what  a  hott  of  well-loved  name,  would  rite  up  in  those  who 
have  laid  brave  or  wise  wordi  to  comfort  and  aid  their  breth- 
ren in  adversity.  And  boot,  are  yet  to  be  written,  and  strong 
men  are  yet  to  come,  to  alleviate  afresh  the  sadness  of  life.  A'o 
word,  lent  out  with  thi,  intention  shall  fail  to  fnd  a  lodg- 

It  seems  as  if  little  remained  to  be  laid :  but  in  truth  there  i, 
t  land  in  the  human  heart  to  be  tilled. 


Sir  ARTHUR  HELPS. 


103 
FOUR- LINE  PICA  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED.* 


B 


VER  Y  Li- 
brary, says 
The  Poet  at  the 
Breakfast  Table 
(Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes),  should 
try  to  be  complete 

on  something,  if 

.<-*   *' 

only  the  history 
of  pin-heads. 


IO4 
DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


A  VER  Y  learned 
^~L  man  was  IVilliam 
Budceus.  He  took  little 
interest  in  business,  but 
'was  noted  for  his  intense 
application  to  his  books. 
One  day  while  absorbed 
in  study  he  was  informed 
that  his  house  was  on  fire. 
To  this  announcement  he 
gave  his  usual  response  : 
((Tell  my  wife  of  it,  for 
I  never  meddle  with  do- 
mestic affairs'.' 


IDS 

DOUBLE  GREAT  PRIMER  No.  13  ITALIC.     DOUBLE  LEADED.* 


rHE  pride  of 
man  is  not  easy 
to  put  down.  If  you 
stop  it  up  at  the  hole 
A9  it  will  peep  out  at 
hole  ~B.  Close  that 
up,  and  quicker  than 
thought  it  will  stand 
at  the  hole  C.  Pride 
snares  the  unwary, 
and  proves  a  draw- 
back to  the  unregen- 
erate. 


io6 
DOUBLE  ENGLISH  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


ATOTHING  deltghts 
_/  V  a  true  blockhead  so 
much  as  to  prove  a  negative 
—  to  show  that  everybody 
has  been  wrong  in  what 
they  believed  true.  Fancy 
the  delicious  sensation  to 
an  empty-headed  creature 
of  realising  for  a  moment 
that  he  has  emptied  every- 
body's else  head  as  well  as 
his  own  !  —  nay,  that  for 
once  his  own  hollow  bottle 
of  a  head  has  had  the  best 
of  other  bottles  and  has  been 
the  first  empty,  the  first  to 
know  —  nothing. 


RUSKIN. 


LOUIS   QUATORZE   SCRIPT,  BODY   32.      LEADED. 


C^  y'jfienevet  Q)  have  to  do 
V  V      wtt/i  iiounq  men  anu 

cJ  cJ 

women,  ne  daw,  Q)  always  wuk 
to  know  wkat  t/ieti  000116  cute. 
G)  wtdli  to  aejenu  tkem  jwm 
DCLO  ;  Q)  WiArt  to  mtwauce  tkem 
to  good;  Q)  wtd/i  to  Apeak  of  tke 
immense  benefit  wktck  a  qoou 
mtnu  aeuved  fwm  leading,  Q) 
trunk,  tf  a  uoiinq  man  of  aoiittij 
Afioiiw  awe  yon  kid  konedt  ex- 
perience, you.  wouiu  fine  tkat 
ne  oweo  more  tmpuUe  to  oookd 
tkan  to  Living  mindd, 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


io8 
DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


rHERE  are  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  books  in  the 
Paris  Library  so  scarce  that  even 
the  persistent  searchers  of  the 
British  Museum  have  been  un- 
able to  duplicate  them.  A  fitting 
rejoinder  to  Solomons  remark, 
"Of  making  many  books  there 
is  no  end"  would  be  that  there 
does  nt  seem  to  be  any  end  either 
to  destroying  about  seven-eighths 
of  the  many  books  that  are  made. 
MS hy  should  not  every  printer  keep, 
in  some  way,  a  sort  of  systematic 
catalogue  of  all  the  publications 
sent  out  from  his  establishment, 
with  the  author  s  name  and  a  brief 
synopsis  of  the  contents  ?  That 
would  save  so  much  to  posterity, 
though  the  entire  edition  should 
have  been  lost. 


109 

DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  No.  13  ITALIC.     DOCBLK  LKAUI.I;.' 


O  W  calculate —  or  just  think 
enough  to  feel  the  impos- 
sibility of  calculating — the  num- 
ber of  wood-cuts  used  daily  for 
our  popular  prints,  and  how 
many  men  are  night  and  day 
cutting  1050  square  holes  to  the 
square  inch  as  the  occupation  of 
their  daily  life.  And  yet  Mrs. 
Beecher  Stowe  and  the  North 
Americans  fancy  they  have  abol- 
ished slavery  !  The  truth  is,  that 
time  and  place,  complexion  and 
condition,  have  little  to  do  with 
the  question  of  slavery.  It  is  the 
occupation,  and  the  necessity  of 
continuing  in  it,  that  robs  the 
man  of  his  independence  and 
makes  him  a  slave. 


110 

DOUBLE  SMALL  PICA  LITHOGRAPHIC  ITALIC.    TRIPLE  LEADED.' 


G-oldsmith, 
Bunyan,  and  Crusoe 
when  I  was  a  ~boy,  morn- 
ing, noon,  and  night.  I  took 
to  these  as  I  took  to  milk, 
and,  without  the  least  idea 
what  I  was  doing,  got  the 
taste  for  simple  words  into 
the  very  fiber  of  my  nature. 
That  vast  hanger  to  read 
never  left  me.  If  there  was 
no  candle,  I  poked  my  head 
dow7^  to  the  fire;  read  while 
I  was  eating,  blowing  the 
~bellows,  or  walking  from 
one  place  to  another.  I  could 
read  and  walk  four  miles 
an  hour.  My  world  cen- 
tered 


ROBEKT 


1 1 1 

GREAT  PRIMER  LITHOGRAPHIC  ITALIC.     DOUBLE  LEADED.* 


A 


JST  affecting  instance  of 
the  tenderness  and  the 
compensations  of  teaming  is 
furnished  ns  ~by  the  old  age 
of  Usher,  when  no  spectacles 
coixld  help  his  fatting  sight, 
and  a  t>oo~k,  v^as  dark  except 
t)eneath  the  strongest  light  of 
the  -vrindovr.  Sopefixl  and  -re- 
signed he  continaed  his  tasT^, 
follovring  the  sixn  from  -room 
to  -room  throixgh  the  hoixse  he 
lived  in,  nntil  the  shadovrs 
of  the  trees  disappeared  f~rom 
the  g~rass,  and  the  day  vras 
done.  Ho^v^  delightful  nuast 
have  ~been  his  feelings,  v^hen 
the  sunbeam  fell  brilliantly 
upon  some  half-rerrLerribered 
passage,  and  thoixght  after 
thonght  shone  out  from  the 
misty  ^words,  like  thefeatares 
of  a  familiar  landscape  in  a 
clearing  fog.  REV.  ROBERT  A.  WILLMOTT. 


112 

GREAT  PRIMER  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


^  I  ^HE  "Book  Buyer" prints  an  amusing 
1  letter  from  Mr.  T.  B.  Aldrick  to  Prof. 
E.  S.  Morse,  ex-president  of  the  American 
Academy  for  the  Advancement  of  Science. 
Professor  Morse,  it  should  be  stated,  has  a 
handwriting  quite  indescribable.  "My  dear 
Morse:  It  was  very  .pleasant  for  me  to  get 
a  letter  from  you  the  other  day.  Perhaps  I 
should  have  found  it  pleasanter  if  I  had 
been  able  to  decipher  it.  I  dont  think  I 
mastered  anything  beyond  the  date  (which 
I  knew)  and  the  signature  (which  I  guessed 
at).  There  's  a  singular  and  perpetual 
charm  in  a  letter  of  yours ;  it  never  grows 
old,  it  never  loses  its  novelty.  One  can  say 
to  ones  self  every  morning :  'There  's  that 
letter  of  Morse  s ;  I  have  nt  read  it  yet.  I 
think  I '//  take  another  shy  at  it  to-day,  and 
maybe  I  shall  be  able  in  the  course  of  a  few 
years  to  make  out  what  he  means  by  those 
fs  that  look  like  w's  and  those  i's  that 
have  nt  any  eyebrows'.  Other  letters  are 
read  and  thrown  away  and  forgotten,  but 
yours  are  kept  forever — unread.  One  of 
them  will  last  a  reasonable  man  a  lifetime. 
Admiringly  yours,  T.  B.  Aldrich" 


H3 

GREAT  PRIMER  No.  13  ITALIC.     LEADED.* 


JN  the  office  of  a  Wisconsin  journal 
there  is  a  compositor  who  sets  type  so 
rapidly  that  the  friction  of  his  movements 
melts  the  lead  in  his  stick,  making  of  the 
type  solid  stereotype  plates.  To  prevent 
this  his  case  is  submerged  in  water,  yet  the 
rapidity  of  his  motions  keeps  the  water  boil- 
ing  and  bubbling,  so  that  eggs  have  been 
frequently  boiled  in  the  space-box.  Pipes 
lead  from  the  bottom  of  his  case  to  a  boiler 
in  the  press-room,  and  the  steam  generated 
by  the  compositor's  rapid  movements  runs 
the  power  press.  In  one  day  he  set  so 
much  that  it  took  all  hands,  from  editor 
to  devil,  two  weeks  to  read  the  proof,  and 
it  was  not  his  good  day  for  setting  type, 
either.  In  three  years  he  earned  enough 
to  buy  a  town  house,  a  hillside  farm,  and 
the  controlling  interest  in  a  bank.  The 
only  thing  that  prevented  his  purchasing 
the  newspaper  itself  was  the  lack  of  some 
one  to  take  his  place  in  the  composing  room. 
He  is  forty-two  years  old,  and  has  been  a 
phenomenal  type-setter  all  his  life,  but  was 
never  appreciated  until  he  went  to  Wis- 
consin. 


114 

ENGLISH  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


^i^HE  description  of  letter  in  which  this  page  is 
*  composed  was  designed  by  Aldus  Manutius,  a 
Roman,  who  married  the  daughter  of  Andrew  Tor- 
resani,  manager  of  the  printing  office  in  Venice  which 
had  formerly  belonged  to  Nicholas  Jenson.  Aboiit 
the  year  1490  Aldus  obtained  control  of  the  establish- 
ment, the  reputation  of  which  he  greatly  increased  by 
his  scholarship  and  by  his  numerous  editions  of  the 
classics.  He  possessed  no  superior  skill  as  a  typog- 
rapher, but  he  introduced  Roman  types  of  a  very  neat 
cut,  and  invented  the  letter  which  we  call  Italic.  It 
was  originally  designed  to  distinguish  such  parts  of 
a  book  as  might  be  said  not  strictly  to  belong  to  the 
body  of  the  work,  as  prefaces,  introductions,  annota- 
tions, etc.,  all  of  which  it  was  the  custom  formerly  to 
print  in  Italics.  In  the  present  age  it  is  used  more 
sparingly,  the  necessity  being  supplied  by  the  more 
elegant  mode  of  inclosing  extracts  within  quotation 
marks,  and  poetry  and  annotations  in  a  smaller 
sized  type.  The  too  frequent  use  of  Italic  is  useless 
and  absurd.  It  is  too  often  made  use  of  to  mark 
emphatic  sentences  or  words,  but  without  any  rule 
or  system,  and  so  destroys,  in  a  great  measure,  the 
beauty  of  pointing,  and  often  confuses  the  reader 
where  it  is  improperly  applied,  who,  pausing  to  con- 
sider why  such  words  are  more  strongly  noted,  loses 
the  context  of  the  sentence  and  has  to  revert  back  to 
regain  the  sense  of  the  subject.  Not  only  does  Italic 
so  confuse  the  reader,  but  the  boldface  of  the  Roman 
suffers  by  being  contrasted  with  the  fine  strokes  of  the 
Italic,  and  that  symmetry  and  proportion  is  destroyed 
which  it  is  so  necessary  and  desirable  to  preserve. 


COLUMBIAN  No.  13  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


W  N  England  the  general  reader  borrows  Ms 
1  books  from  a  circulating  library,  wliile  in 
America  lie  oivns  them.  An  eminent  English 
mathematician  once  said  that  the  thing  wliicli 
most  surprised  him  ivhen  he  first  arrived  in  this 
country  was  to  hear  two  young  ladies  say  they 
had  been  into  town  to  buy  some  boohs.  "  To 
buy  some  boohs!"  he  repeated,  in  astonishment; 
"In  England  nobody  buys  a  booh"  This  asser- 
tion ivas,  perhaps,  not  mathematically  exact,  but 
it  may  serve  to  mark  the  difference  between  the 
two  sets  of  readers  of  the  one  language.  Mr. 
Lang,  in  his  delightful  booh  on  "The  Library" 
reveals  his  English  limitations  at  once  when  he 
speaks  of  boohs  being  "the  rarest  of  possessions 
in  many  houses.  There  are  relics  of  the  age 
before  circulating  libraries;  there  are  fragments 
of  the  lettered  store  of  some  scholarly  great- 
grandfather ;  and  these,  witli  a  few  odd  num- 
bers of  magazines,  a  few  primers  and  manuals, 
some  sermons  and  novels,  make  up  the  ordinary 
library  of  a  British  household."  There  is  some- 
thing to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  English  system 
of  borroiving  books — but  not  much.  A  booh 
that  is  really  wortli  reading  is  wortli  owning. 
A  booh  that  has  benefited  you  wliile  reading 
ought  to  be  within  reach  immediately  whenever 
you  want  to  refer  to  it  again.  It  is  best  to 
own  all  really  good  boohs.  i*«*.i» 


n6 
ELZEVIR  ITALIC  BODY  14.     LEADED. 


/T  was  exceedingly  clever,  what  may,  perhaps,  be 
catted  smart,  just  at  a  moment  when  English 
authors  were  placed  by  a  new  efflorescence  of  piracy 
in  a  worse  position  than  ever  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  that  the  American  periodical  should  have 
invaded  our  shores.  But  so  it  was.  It  has  made,  we 
believe,  a  most  successful  invasion,  and  not  without 
deserving  its  success.  For  the  American  magazines 
which  England  bos  accepted  with  cordiality  are  excel- 
lent in  ittustration;  and  if  their  literary  qualities  are 
not  the  highest  they  have  at  least  a  certain  novelty  and 
freshness  of  flavor. 

There  are,  however,  certain  results  of  their  intro- 
duction to  this  country  which  are  more  important  than 
the  possibly  ephemeral  success  which  a  public,  more 
free  from  prejudices  in  favor  of  its  own  than  ever  pub- 
lic was  before,  has  awarded  to  them;  and  these  are, 
first,  the  revelation  of  some  American  authors  little  or 
not  at  att  known  in  England,  and  second,  a  full  per- 
ception, hitherto  possible  only  to  a  few,  of  the  claims  of 
America  in  literature.  These  claims  we  have  hitherto 
been  very  charitable  to,  as  the  early  clutches  of  a  great 
literature  about  to  come  into  being,  though  as  yet  some- 
what stunted  and  not  of  lavish  growth,  at  the  laurels 
of  fame .  But  few,  perhaps,  were  aware  how  little  con- 
sideration was  thought  to  be  necessary,  or  how  entirely 
sure  our  transatlantic  relations  were  of  having  attained 
a  standing-ground  of  certainty  much  above  that  vague 
platform  of  hope.  The  American  magazine  has  re- 
vealed this  with  effect. 


BLACKWOOD'S  MAGAZINE. 


PICA  LITHOGRAPHIC  ITALIC.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


AFIHSTE  book  noTV  means  putting  CL 
splash  of  small,  ignoble  type,  in  the 
middle  of  CL  staring  expanse  of  discol- 
ored paper — paper,  as  a  rule,  dignified 
-with,  the  title  of  "  hand-made,"  on  the 
strength  of  its  being  too  thick  and  stiff 
.  to  turn  over  properly  or  lie  flat,  as  it 
should.  We  heap  these  buckram,  pages 
together  till  they  matte  a  clumsy  volume, 
which  Tve  put  into  a  -white  vellum  or 
parchment  or  calico  binding  that  soils 
Tvith  the  slightest  touch ;  ive  scrawl 
some  glaring  inscription  over  the  sides, 
and  call  the  result  an  edition  de  luxe! 
Artistically,  the  thing  is  a  mistake. 
The  letterpress  should  fit  the  page,  in 
spite  of  all  we  have  heard  of  the  (fneat 
rivulet  of  text  meandering  through  a 
meadow  of  margin  " ;  and  there  can  ~be 
no  doubt  that  though  margins  there 
mu,st  ~be — and  good  margins,  too — they 
mast  be  in  strict  proportion,  to  the  size 
of  the  page.  Too  mach  margin,  though 
better  than  too  little,  is  still  a  fault,  and 
vrith  this,  as  with  everything  else,  there 
is  virtue  in  moderation.  A.  grave  error 
is  the  modern  custom  of  putting  small 
type  in  big  pages,  and  trusting  to  the 
Tvide  margins  to  make  amends.  The 
type  must  ~be  proportioned  to  the  page, 
and,  biff  books  ought  to  be  in  big  type. 


PAPER  AND  PRINT. 


PICA  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


/  7*  VER  Y  now  and  then  it  becomes  an  editor  s  duty  to  say 
il*  a  few  words  to  contributors,  either  privately  or  in  his 
editorial  columns,  in  regard  to  their  methods  of  preparing 
manuscript.  It  is,  fortunately,  no  longer  necessary  to  say, 
"  Write  only  on  one  side  of  the  paper,"  or  "  Don  t  fold  each 
sheet  separately" ;  for  no  one  to-day  commits  these  capital 
offenses.  Untidy  manuscripts,  however,  are  still  common, 
and  when  combined  with  peculiar  or  affected  chirography, 
are  wearisome  things  to  deal  with.  To  a  reader  of  refine- 
ment, wretchedly  prepared  manuscript  is  as  repugnant  as  a 
slouchy  person.  It  at  least  indicates  careless  habits,  and 
leads  up  to  the  inference  that  what  is  not  worth  preparing 
well  in  manuscript  is  not  worth  perpetuating  in  print.  A 
private  letter,  bearing  on  this  point,  was  written  by  one 
of  our  editors  last  week,  which  ran  somewhat  as  follows  : 

"As  I  have  written  to  you  once  or  twice  in  a  way  not  usual 
with  an  editor,  I  am  tempted  to  go  farther  and  give  you  a 
little  advice  about  the  appearance  of  your  manuscripts.  If 
you  will  excuse  my  saying  it,  they  are  very  untidy.  It  is 
greatly  to  your  disadvantage  that  they  come  into  the  editor  s 
hands  in  such  condition  ;  he  is  always  prejudiced  at  the  start 
against  a  manuscript  that  is  rolled  or  folded  so  as  to  neces- 
sitate a  constant  effort  to  keep  the  pages  open  sufficiently  to 
be  read,  and  made  up  of  different  kinds  and  sizes  of  paper, 
or  blotted  and  interlined  to  the  extent  of  being  rendered  in 
the  least  illegible,  or  that  is  in  any  other  way  untidy.  It  is 
said  of  one  well-known  editor  that  he  refitses  to  read  any 
manuscripts  that  are  untidy  or  hard  to  hold.  The  manu- 
script should  be  so  prepared  that  the  editor  can  put  his 
whole  thought  upon  its  subject-matter.  That  manuscript 
is  the  most  welcome,  perhaps,  that  is  prepared  from  a  pad 
of  note-paper  size,  and  is  sent  in  an  envelope  large  enough  so 
that  the  paper  need  not  be  folded.  Then  the  editor  will  at 
least  not  be  prejudiced  against  an  article  before  he  begins  to 
read  it" 


INDEPENDENT. 


IIQ 

PICA  No.  ii  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


/USED  to  believe  a  great  deal  more  in  opportunities 
and  less  in  application  than  I  do  now.  Time  and 
health  are  needed,  but  with  these  there  are  always  opportu- 
nities. Rich  people  have  a  fancy  for  spending  money  very 
uselessly  on  their  culture  because  it  seems  to  them  more  valu- 
able when  it  has  been  costly  ;  but  the  truth  is  that  by  the 
blessing  of  good  and  cheap  literature  intellectual  light  has. 
become  almost  as  accessible  as  daylight.  I  have  a  rich 
friend  who  travels  more  and  buys  more  costly  things  than 
I  do ;  but  he  does  not  really  learn  more  or  advance  farther 
in  the  twelvemonth.  If  my  days  are  fully  occupied,  what  has 
he  to  set  against  them  f  Only  other  well-occupied  days,  no 
more.  If  he  is  getting  benefit  at  St.  Petersburg,  he  is  miss- 
ing the  benefit  I  am  getting  round  my  house  and  in  it. 
The  sum  of  the  year's  benefit  seems  to  be  surprisingly  alike 
in  both  cases.  So  if  you  are  reading  a  piece  of  thoroughly 
good  literature,  Baron  Rothschild  may  possibly  be  as  well 
occupied  as  you  are — he  is  certainly  not  better  occupied. 
When  I  open  a  noble  volume,  I  say  to  myself,  "Now 
the  only  Crwsus  that  I  envy  is  the  man  who  is  reading  a 
better  book  than  this."  .  .  . 

I  willingly  concede  all  that  you  say  against  fashionable 
society  as  a  whole.  It  is,  as  you  say,  frivolous,  bent  on 
amusement,  incapable  of  attention  sufficiently  prolonged  to 
grasp  any  serious  subject,  and  liable  both  to  confusion  and 
inaccuracy  in  the  ideas  which  it  hastily  forms  or  easily 
receives.  You  do  right,  assuredly,  not  to  let  it  waste  your 
most  valuable  hours,  but  I  believe  also  that  you  do  wrong 
in  keeping  out  of  it  altogether.  The  society  ivhich  seems  so 
frivolous  in  masses  contains  individual  members  who,  if 
you  knew  them  better,  would  be  able  and  willing  to  render 
you  the  most  efficient  intellectual  help,  and  you  miss  this 
help  by  restricting  yourself  exclusively  to  books.  Nothing 
can  replace  the  conversation  of  living  men  and  women  ; 
not  even  the  richest  literature  can  replace  it. 


PHILIP  G.  HAMERTON. 


120 
ELZEVIR  ITALIC  BODY  12.    LEADED. 


anxious  inquirer  having  written  to  the  Chicago 
Tribune  to  know  what  be  should  do  to  become  a  first- 
class  proof-reader,  received  the  following  reply: 

"  To  become  a  first-class  proof-reader  is  a  very  easy  task 
—  so  easy  that  the  wonder  is  that  more  young  people  don't 
take  it  up  instead  of  clerking  or  copying.  The  first  step  is 
to  serve  an  apprenticeship  at  printing,  which  will  enable  the 
student  to  discern  typographical  irregularities.  A  general 
acquaintance  with  history,  biography,  poetry,  fiction,  music, 
geography,  the  drama,  etc.,  is  important.  Politics  should 
have  attention,  for  you  must  be  able  to  identify  every  man  who 
has  followed  the  business  from  Cain  down  to  the  present  day. 
No  matter  whether  be  is  the  Premier  of  England,  or  the  Caliph 
of  Bagdad,  or  a  Bridgeport  'terrier' — you  should  have  a 
minute  knowledge  of  bis  public  and  private  life  and  be  able 
to  seleft  the  proper  Spelling  from  the  balf-do^en  ways  which 
the  author  is  sure  to  employ.  Read,  ponder,  and  assim- 
ilate Webster,  the  Bible,  SbakSpere,  '  Anthon's  Classical 
Dictionary,'  'Roget's  Thesaurus,'  '  Lippincott  s  Gazetteer,' 
'Hoyden's  Dictionary  of  Dates,'  the  cyclopaedias  of  Appleton, 
ZeU,  Johnson,  and  others,  ( Bremiscb-Neidersachsisches  Wor- 
terbucb,'  '  Brandtkes  Slownik  dokladny  Je^yka  Polskiego 
Neimieckigo,'  and  any  other  works  of  a  solid  nature  that 
happen  to  be  at  hand.  During  the  long  Winter  evenings 
you  might  scoop  in  a  few  languages — say  Greek,  Latin, 
French,  Hebrew,  Russian,  German,  Chinese,  Bohemian,  and 
Choftaw.  The  business  is  learned  in  a  short  time  by  any 
young  man  with  a  little  perseverance,  and  affords  constant 
employment  (twelve  hours  seven  days  a  week)  at  a  liberal 
compensation  ($20),  with  frequent  honorable  mention .  When 
vou  have  picked  up  the  rudiments  mentioned,  if  you  don't 
conclude  to  become  a  college  professor  at  $5000  a  year,  call 
at  the  Tribune  office,  and  we  will  give  you  a  desk.  Our 
present  proof-readers  are  hardly  up  to  the  standard." 


121 
ELZEVIR  ITALIC  BODY  10.     LEADED. 


years  ago  /was  one  evening  sitting  in  my  study  when  a 
lad  entered  my  presence  and  asked  if  I  would  be  willing  to  lend 
him  something  to  read.  I  replied  in  the  affirmative,  and  inquired  what 
kind  of  reading  matter  he  desired.  He  expressed  a  wish  for  something 
that  was  exciting,  and  I  requested  him  to  be  a  little  more  definite.  Then 
he  gave  me  a  vivid  summary  of  a  work  which  he  had  recently  read  to  his 
great  enjoyment;  evidently  one  of  those  trashy  romances  of  which  so 
many  are  published  in  <fCBoys'  Libraries,"  whose  perusal  can  in  no  wise 
be  beneficial. 

I  went  to  my  bookcase  and  took  from  it  one  of  Abbot's  histories  for 
young  people,  "  The  History  of  Darius  the  Great."  Opening  it  I  read ( 
the  paragraph  in  which  is  given  an  account  of  the  shooting  by  Cambyses 
of  his  friend's  son  through  the  heart  with  an  arrow  before  the  father's 
eyes.  Then  I  asked  if  he  thought  the  book  would  suit  him,  and  he  an- 
swered, "  Yes,  sir." 

He  carried  the  book  away  with  him  and  two  evenings  later  returned 
with  it,  inquiring  if  I  would  lend  him  another  similar  to  it.  I  did  so, 
and  let  him  have  other  volumes  in  succession,  until  within  three  months 
after  receiving  the  first  he  had  read  the  thirty  and  odd  volumes  forming 
the  series — read  them  under  standingly,  I  learned  by  questioning  him — 
and  acquired  a  taste  for  substantial  literary  food. 

This  summer  he  will  graduate  with  the  highest  honors  from  one  of  the 
foremost  colleges  in  the  country,  having  defrayed  the  expenses  of  the 
preparatory  school  and  the  college  by  his  earnings  when  his  mates  were 
many  of  them  resting.  He  intends  eventually  to  praclice  at  the  bar, 
where  one  of  his  disposition  is  likely  to  become  a  shining  light,  if  neither 
a  Webster  nor  a  Choate. 

He  is  pleased  to  attribute  his  desire  for  an  education  to  my  encourage- 
ment years  since,  but  I  can  conscientiously  credit  myself  only  with  having 
brought  to  his  consideration  the  books  to  which  I  have  refenred. 

Young  friends,  read  these  same  books,  or  books  of  a  similar  character, 
instead  of  the  printed  stuff  which  greets  your  vision  on  every  side.  You 
will  find  the  story  of  real  flesh  and  blood  heroes  and  heroines  as  exciting 
as  is  that  of  fictitious  personages,  and  reading  of  them  will  be  stimulated 
to  emulate  their  noblest,  to  abhor  their  worst,  traits.  Best  of  all,  such 
books  will  incite  you  to  acquire  additional  information  relative  to  those 
concerning  whom  you  have  been  reading,  and  eventually  to  secure  an 
education  that  will  fit  you  to  make  your  way  through  the  world  suc- 
cessfully. 

FREDERICK  F.  FOSTER,  in  "Harper's  Young  People." 


122 

SMALL  PICA  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


^ j  ^  HE  ancient  printers,  or,  at  least,  those  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
J  had  only  very  small  presses,  and  two  folio  pages,  little  larger 
than  two  pages  of  foolscap,  was  the  largest  surface  they  could  print. 
It  is  probable  also  that  the  system  of  laying  down  pages,  or  "imposing" 
them,  that  we  now  have,  was  not  then  known.  Their  mode  of  pro- 
cedure was  as  follows  :  They  took  a  certain  number  of  sheets  of  paper, 
three,  four,  five,  or  more,  and  folded  them  in  the  middle,  the  quantity 
forming  a  section.  Three  sheets  thus  folded  or  "  quired  "  is  called  a 
ternion  ;  four  sheets  a  quaternion,  and  so  on.  Hence,  the  first  sheet 
would  contain  the  first  two  pages  of  the  ternion  and  the  last  two  pages  ; 
a  that  is,  pages  one  and  tvvo,  and  eleven  and  twelve.  The  second  sheet 
lying  inside  the  first,  would  contain  pages  three  and  four  and  nine 
and  ten  ;  the  third  sheet  having  pages  five  and  six  and  seven  and 
eight.  If  the  reader  will  take  three  slips  of  paper  and  fold  them  in 
the  same  manner,  marking  the  numbers  of  the  pages,  the  process  will 
be  easily  understood. 

It  is  obvious  that  when  a  system  of  this  kind  was  adopted,  there  was 
a  danger  lest  the  loose  sheets  should  become  disarranged,  and  not 
follow  in  their  proper  order.  To  obviate  such  an  accident,  there  was 
written  at  the  bottom  of  the  first  page  of  each  leaf,  a  Roman  numeral, 
as  j,  ij,  iij  ( i,  2,  3),  and  so  on.  This  plan  was  originally  adopted 
by  the  scribes,  and  the  printers  merely  imitated  it.  When  the  num- 
bers followed  in  due  order,  it  was  evident  that  the  sheets  were  prop- 
erly quired  together. 

But  a  book  being  made  up  of  a  number  of  quires,  there  was  a  dan- 
ger lest  the  quires  themselves  should  become  disarranged.  To  prevent 
this,  there  was  written  at  the  foot  of  each  page  a  letter  of  the  alphabet. 
The  first  sheet  would  bear  the  letter  a  ;  the  second  b,  and  so  on. 
When  these  two  indications  were  present,  the  binder  could  never  be 
in  doubt  as  td  the  order  of  the  different  sheets.  The  first  page  of  the 
book  was  marked  a  j ;  the  third  page,  a  ij ;  the  fifth  page,  a  iij,  and 
so  forth.  The  m  xt  quire  presented  the  letters  b  j,  b  ij,  b  iij,  and  so  on. 

These  indications  at  the  foot  of  the  pages  are  knoivn  as  signatures. 
When  a  page  bears  one  of  them  it  is  said  to  be  "  signed,"  and  where 
there  is  no  mark  of  the  kind  it  is  said  to  be  "unsigned."  In  the 
earliest  books,  the  signatures  were  written  with  a  pen,  and  the  fact 
that  many  copies  that  have  been  preserved  do  not  now  bear  signatures, 
is  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  were  written  so  close  to  the  margin  that 
they  have  been  cut  off  since. 


123 
SMALL  PICA  No.  11  ITALIC.     LEADED, 


HAT  one  should  possess  no  books  beyond  his  power  of  peril- 
sal — that  lie  should  buy  no  faster  than  he  can  read  straight 
through  ivhat  he  has  already  bought — is  a  supposition  alike  pre- 
posterous and  unreasonable.  "  Surely  you  have  far  more  books 
than  you  can  read"  is  sometimes  the  inane  remark  of  the  bar- 
barian who  gets  his  books,  volume  by  volume,  from  some  circu- 
lating library  or  reading  club,  and  reads  them  all  through,  one 
after  the  other,  with  a  dreary  dutifulness,  that  he  may  be  sure 
that  he  has  got  the  value  of  his  money. 

It  is  true  that  there  are  some  books,  as  Homer,  Virgil,  Horace, 
Milton,  Shakspere,  and  Scott,  which  every  man  should  read  ivho 
has  the  opportunity — should  read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly 
digest.  To  neglect  the  opportunity  of  becoming  familiar  ivith 
them  is  deliberately  to  sacrifice  the  position  in  the  social  scale 
which  an  ordinary  education  enables  its  possessor  to  reach.  But 
is  one  next  to  read  through  the  sixty  and  odd  folio  volumes  of  the 
"  Bollandist  Lives  of  the  Saints,"  and  the  new  edition  of  the  By- 
zantine historians,  and  the  State  Trials,  and  the  Encyclopcedia 
Britannica,  and  Moreri,  and  the  Statutes  at  Large,  and  the  Gen- 
tleman's Magazine,  from  the  beginning,  each  separately  and  in 
succession  f  Such  a  course  of  reading  would  do  a  good  deal  to- 
wards weakening  the  mind,  if  it  did  not  create  absolute  insanity. 

But  in  all  these  just  named,  even  in  the  Statutes  at  Large,  and 
in  thousands  upon  thousands  of  other  books,  there  is  precious 
honey  to  be  gathered  by  the  literary  busy  bee,  who  passes  on  from 
flower  to  flower.  In  fact,  "  a  course  of  reading,"  as  it  is  some- 
times called,  is  a  course  of  regimen  for  dwarfing  the  mind,  like 
the  drugs  which  dog-breeders  give  to  King  Charles  spaniels  to 
keep  them  small.  Within  the  span  of  life  allotted  to  man  there 
is  but  a  certain  number  of  books  that  it  is  practicable  to  read 
through,  and  it  is  not  possible  to  make  a  selection  that  will  not, 
in  a  manner,  wall  in  the  mind  from  a  free  expansion  over  the  re- 
public of  letters.  The  being  chained,  as  it  were,  to  one  intellect 
in  the  perusal  straight  on  of  any  large  book,  is  a  sort  of  mental 
slavery  superinducing  imbecility.  Even  Gibboris  "  Decline  and 
Fall,",  luminous  and  comprehensive  as  its  philosophy  is  and  rapid 
and  brilliant  the  narrative,  tvill  become  deleterious  mental  food 
if  consumed  straight  through  without  variety.  It  will  be  well  to 
relieve  it  occasionally  with  a  little  lighter  reading. 


I24 
LONG  PRIMER  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


""  /  "HE  activity  of  the  early  printers  was  remarkable.  The  task  of  pre- 
J  serving  the  literature  of  the  world  was  fairly  done  at  a  very  early  date. 
There  were  not  many  books  that  promised  to  be  salable  and  profitable,  and 
some  of  them  were  scarce,  and  copies  were  obtained  with  difficulty ;  but  nearly 
every  -valuable  book  was  found  and  printed.  Naude,  the  librarian  of  Cardinal 
Mazarin,  said  that  before  the  year  1474  all  the  good  books,  however  bulky,  had 
been  printed  two  or  three  limes,  to  say  nothing  of  many  worthless  works  which 
should  have  been  burned.  The  same  work  was  often  printed  in  the  same  year 
by  four  or  five  rival  printers  in  as  many  different  cities.  The  catalogue  of 
Hain  very  minutely  describes  16,290  editions,  which,  at  the  low  estimate  of 
joo  copies  for  each  edition,  represents  a  total  production  of  4,887,000  books. 

The  failure  of  many  early  printers  to  make  their  business  profitable  was 
largely  'caused  by  their  injudicious  selection  for  publication  of  bulky  theological 
writings  which  cost  a  great  deal  of  money  to  print  and  were  salable  only  to  a 
small  class.  It  was  umvisely  supposed  that  printing  would  receive  its  great 
support  from  the  ecclesiastics.  With  this  object  in  view,  the  first  printers 
printed  almost  exclusively  in  Latin,  and  generally  in  the  expensive  shape  of 
folio  —  the  books  which  could  be  read  only  by  the  learned,  and  bought  only  by 
the  wealthy.  The  printers'1  hopes  of  profit  were  rarely  ever  realized.  Only  a 
few  like  Zell,  Mentel,  and  Schoeffer  became  successful  merchants  of  books  on 
dogmatic  theology.  It  was  soon  discovered  that  printing  could  not  be  supported 
by  ecclesiastics.  The  printers  who  had  been  induced  to  set  up  presses  in  mon- 
asteries did  not  long  remain  there,  nor  did  the  offices  which  they  left  prosper  for 
many  years.  Books  of  devotion  were  never  in  greater  request,  but  books  published 
by  the  Church  did  not  fully  meet  the  popular  want. 

Nearly  all  the  books  printed  by  Gutenberg  and  Schceffer  were  in  the  Latin 
language.  Whether  they  overlooked  the  fact  that  there  was  an  actual  need 
for  books  in  German,  or  whether  they  were  restrained  in  an  attempt  to  print  in 
German,  cannot  be  decided.  Other  publishers  saw  the  need,  and  disregarded 
the  restraint,  if  there  was  any,  to  the  great  inquietude  of  ecclesiastics,  who  seem 
to  have  had  forewarning  of  the  mischief  that  would  be  made  by  types.  On  the 
fourth  day  of  January ,  1486,  Berthold,  the  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  issued  a  man- 
date in  which  he  forbade  all  persons  from  printing,  publishing,  buying  or 
selling  books  translated  from  the  Greek  or  Latin,  or  any  other  language,  before 
the  written  transition  had  been  approved  by  a  committee  from  the  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Mentz.  The  penalties  were  excommunication,  co?ifiscation 
of  the  books,  and  a  fine  of  100  fiorins  of  gold. 

In  Italy  the  revival  of  classical  literature  opened  a  new  field  for  the  pub- 
lisher, but  the  demand  for  Latin  authors  was  limited.  In  this  country,  and  in 
others,  eagerness  for  books  in  the  native  language  was  manifested — for  books 
that  plain  people  could  read — for  books  that  represented  the  life  and  thoughts  of 
the  living  and  not  of  the  dead. 


THE  INVENTION  OF  PRINTING. 


125 

LONG  PRIMER  No.  n  ITALIC.     Li-:\m  i>. 


"  /TTO  lend  or  not  to  lend"  is  the  first  question  which  the  book-lover 
_JL  has  to  propound  to  himself.  Some  great  men  and  many  little 
men  have  lent  their  books  freely  and  frequently.  Most  of  the  great  book- 
lovers —  those  who  adore  books  as  books — have  rigidly  refused  to  part 
with  any  of  the  volumes  from  their  treasure-houses,  guarding  them  as 
jealously  as  the  Turk  his  harem  ;  some  have  even  gone  to  the  extreme  of 
letting  no  profane  eye  fall  within  the  sacred  depths  of  the  bookcase.  Car- 
lyle  was  one  of  the  great  men  of  our  scribbling  century,  and  he  was  free 
with  his  books.  When  Dickens  wanted  to  get  up  the  facts  for  the  frame- 
work ofuA  Tale  of  Two  Cities"  he  consulted  Carlyle  as  to  the  chief  books 
he  should  read  to  master  the  feeling  and  the  sayings  and  doings  of  the 
period.  While  he  was  expecting  an  answer,  a  cart  drove  up  before  his 
house,  full  of  books  about  the  French  Revolution  ;  and  Carlyle  had  sent 
it.  The  great  Grotier  himself,  ivhose  taste  in  binding  has  caused  his 
books  to  be  sought  for,  marked  their  sides  with  the  motto,  "Io.  Grolerii  et 
amicor  urn,"  denoting  that  they  were  the  property  of  Grolier  and  his  friends. 
But  the  records  of  history  are  like  the  law  reports  :  if  you  search  dili- 
gently you  can  generally  find  a  case  on  the  other  side.  The  man  who  dis- 
likes and  absolutely  refuses  to  lend  his  books  has  never  hidden  his  light 
under  a  bushel ;  indeed,  he  has  been  trout  to  noise  his  vice  abroad.  And 
one  is  justified  surely  in  refusing  to  lend  a  unique  volume,  or  a  book 
in  any  way  difficult  to  replace.  No  man  has  really  a  right  to  ask  us  to 
lend  that  copy  of  Footers  plays  with  the  neat  signature  of  Samuel  John- 
son on  the  title  ;  or  that  copy  of  the  "  Thedtre  de  j\L  Quinault"  with  the 
name  of  Mile.  Glair  on  stamped  in  gold  on  its  dark  calf  cover ;  or  any 
missal  of  the  thirteenth  century  by  some  monkish  /mud  most  delicately 
wrought.  The  man  who  could  lend  that  book  to  bis  fellow-man  —  without 
a  sinister  motive — is  made  of  something  more  than  mortal  flesh  and 
blood.  It  is  too  much  to  ask.  But  the  book  of  to-day — the  book  in 
print,  the  book  of  commerce,  which  can  be  had  anywhere,  surely  it  were 
churlish  to  decline  to  lend  this  to  a  friend.  I  keep  my  own  ordinary 
books  open  to  all.  Any  man  may  take  one  down  from  the  shelves  and — 
permission  asked  and  granted — may  take  it  home  with  him.  There  is 
no  denying  that  now  and  again  one  of  my  books  fails  to  come  home  to  roost. 
But  I  prefer  this  to  a  selfish  denial  of  the  light  of  literature  to  some  way- 
faring friend.  Yet  I  have  my  rules.  I  never  lend  a  book  which  I  can- 
not replace.  I  never  lend  a  book  of  reference  which  I  may  need  myself 
while  it  is  out.  I  never  lend  one  volume  of  a  set.  I  never  lend  without 
taking  a  receipt,  signed  by  the  borrower.  I  never  lend  a  book  to  a  man 
whom  I  know  to  be  untidy,  or  careless,  or  inconsiderate.  And  by  means 
of  these  rules  I  am  enabled  to  reconcile  my  conscience  to  the  individual 
ownership  of  books. 


ARTHUR  PENN. 


126 
LONG  PRIMER  LAW  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


~\f*0  feature  of  early  printing  is  more  unwork- 
J  V  m.anlike  than  that  of  composition.  Imitating 
the  style  of  the  manuscript  copy,^  the  compositor 
huddled  together  words  and  paragraphs  in  solid 
columns  of  dismal  blackness,  and  sent  his  forms  to 
press  without  title,  running-titles,  chapter-heads, 
and  paging- figures.  The  space  for  the  ornamental 
borders  and  letters  of  the  illuminator  seems  ex- 
travagant when  contrasted  with  the  pinched  spaces 
between  lines  and  words.  The  printer  trusted  to 
the  bright  colors  of  the  illuminator  to  give  relief  to 
the  blackness  of  the  types,  not  knowing  that  a 
purer  relief  and  greater  perspicuity  would  have 
been  secured  by  a  wider  spacing  of  the  words  and 
lines.  The  obscurity  produced  by  huddled  and 
over-black  types  was  increased  by  the  neglect  of 
simple  orthographical  rules.  Proper  names  were 
printed  with  or  without  capitals,  apparently  to  suit 
the  whim  of  the  compositor.  The  comma,  colon,  and 
period,  the  only  points  of  punctuation  in  general 
use,  were  employed  capriciously  and  illogically. 
Crooked  and  unevenly  spaced  lines  and  errors  of 
arrangement  or  making-up  were  common.  Madden 
has  pointed  out  several  gross  blunders,  caused  by 
the  transpositio^^  of  lines  and  pages,  and  an  erro- 
neous calculation  of  the  space  that  should  be  occu- 
pied by  print.  Words  were  mangled  in  division, 
and  in  the  display  of  lines  in  capital  letters,  in  a 
manner  that  seems  inexcusable. 

But  no  usage  of  the  early  compositor  has  proved 
more  annoying  to  modern  students  than  his  law- 
less use  of  abbreviations.  Imitating  the  pernicious 
example  of  Procrustes,  he  made  the  words  fit,  chop- 
ping them  off  on  any  letter  or  in  any  position,  alike 
indifferent  to  the  wants  of  the  reader  and  to  the 
proprieties  of  language.  Whatever  opinion  may  be 
entertained  concerning  the  deterioration  of  print- 
ing in  other  branches,  it  is,  beyond  all  cavil,  cer- 
tain that  in  the  art  of  arranging  types  so  that  the 
meaning  of  the  author  shall  be  made  lucid,  the 
modern  compositor  is  much  the  more  intelligent 
mechanic. 


127 
ELZEVIR  ITALIC  BODY  8.     LEADED. 


f~J~*HE  "'Publishers'  Weekly"  has  been  devoting  considerable  space  to  the  defense 
I  of  books  with  cut  edges  —  or  perhaps  we  should  say  to  the  defense  of  the  prac- 
tice against  the  assertions  of  an  anonymous  correspondent;  for  cut  edges  are  so  gener- 
ally preferred  that  they  may  be  said  to  need  no  defense. 

All  the  ordinary  arguments  in  behalf  of  cut  edges  are  unanswerable.  Books  with 
cut  edges  are  indisputably  more  convenient  to  read  than  those  with  uncut  edges  until 
after  the  book-folder  has  gone  through  them.  Cut  edges,  have  greater  adaptability  ;  they 
save  labor ;  they  are,  let  us  admit,  the  result  of  plain,  practical  common  sense ;  and 
people  with  plain,  practical  common  sense  may  claim  to  have  the  best  of  the  argument. 

Uncut  edges  of  books  are  simply  and  exclusively  a  matter  of  taste,  and  nothing  else ; 
and  the  difficulty  is,  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  show  why  they  should  be  preferred 
even  on  the  ground  of  taste.  If  any  reader  accustomed  to  handling  books  does  not  feel 
and  see  the  superior  beauty  of  the  uncut  page,  there  is  no  human  method  by  which  it 
can  be  demonstrated  to  him.  It  is  no  more  communicable  than  the  sense  of  color  is 
communicable  to  one  who  does  not  possess  it.  The  color  sense  in  some  cases,  however, 
can  be  cultivated;  and  a  person  with  a  good  natural  sense  of  what  is  truly  artistic 
may  he  brought  to  see  wherein  the  superiority  of  the  uncut  book  lies,  if  he  will  take  the 
trouble  to  carefully  compare  the  two  kinds.  It  is  only  in  this,  as  in  some  other  things, 
that  "seeing  is  believing." 

The  book-lover  finds  an  indescribable  charm  and  freshness  in  the  uncut  page  that 
is  never  present  after  the  sheets  have  been  plowed  by  the  binder.  It  is  not  merely  be- 
cause the  margin  is  reduced — for  this  objection  can  be  met  by  having  the  original 
margin  sufficiently  bioad  to  permit  the  edges  to  be  cut  without  in  that  particular  sen- 
sibly injuring  the  book.  It  is  because  the  virgin  purity  of  the  page,  the  sense  of  fresh 
beauty  which  it  originally  possessed,  is  lost.  Every  one  who  is  accustomed  to  see  the 
folded  sheets  of  a  book  before  it  is  bound,  and  the  same  sheets  after  they  have  been 
squeezed,  crushed,  and  subjected  to  the  butcbering-knife  of  the  binder,  must  feel,  if  be 
possesses  a  sense  of  beauty,  that  a  certain  very  inviting  quality  in  the  page  has  been 
extinguished.  The  most  accomplished  book-maker  in  this  country  once  remarked  to 
the  writer  that,  in  comparing  cut  and  uncut  copies  of  the  same  edition  of  a  book,  he 
found  a  difference  which  he  was  utterly  unable  to  account  for  —  the  paper,  the  ink,  the 
printing,  everything  about  the  uncut  copies  seemed  so  much  superior.  Now,  the  writer 
has  made  this  test  many  times,  and  it  never  has  failed.  To  him  a  cut  book  is  always 
despoiled  of  something.  It  is  necessary,  of  course,  for  publishers  to  send  out  books  with 
cut  edges  ;  but  it  is  always  done,  in  his  judgment,  at  the  sacrifice  of  certain  elements 
of  beauty.  In  all  cases  where  utility  is  the  first  consideration,  let  the  edges  be 
trimmed ;  in  all  other  cases,  where  it  is  permissible  to  consider  style  and  beauty,  to 
consider  things  that  invite  and  charm  the  eye,  let  the  edges  be  left  untrimmed.  Even 
when  books  are  bound  in  leather,  if  the  tops  only  are  cut  and  gilded,  and  the  side  and 
bottom  margins  left  untouched,  the  effect  is  very  much  better. 

The  charm  of  the  uncut  page  is  thus  an  impression  upon  the  mind  merely.  There  is 
no  argument  for  it  but  that  of  beauty,  and  all  persons  to  whom  this  does  not  appeal  will 
probably  laugh  at  what  ice  have  said.  Practical  common  sense  is  always  disposed  to 
laugh  at  things  it  cannot  understand;  but  there  is  a  culture  to  which  practical  com- 
mon sense,  so  called,  is  often  nothing  more  than  barren  Philistinism;  and  to  those 
who  have  this  taste  the  laugh  of  the  Philistines  is  known  to  come  from  insufficient 

knowledge. 

APPLE-TON'S  LITERARY  BULLETIN. 


128 
BOURGEOIS  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


HAMILTON  severely  criticizes  fashionable  tastes  in  house  furnishing. 
He  says :  "  Unhappily  Eastlake  and  the  Household  Art  Rooms  on  Tremont 
street  have  diffused  a  malign  influence  throughout  New  England.  Attitudinizing 
tyrannizes  over  taste.  The  simple  and  modest  nomenclature  of  the  fathers  has 
given  place  to  a  baneful  technology.  Boston  takes  the  honest  old  color  we  have 
lived  in  all  our  days,  christens  it  Pompeiian  red,  and  instantly  feels  herself  suffused 
with  a  classic  glow.  She  rises  to  the  high  art  of  bringing  her  breakfast  tea  on  a 
lotus  leaf  and  her  ice-water  in  a  pond  lily,  and  sits  down  harder  than  ever  on 
her  three  hills  as  the  Athens  of  America  — forgetting  that  the  Athens  of  Greece  in 
her  highest  art  days  drank  her  Samian  wine  out  of  black  and  red  Beverly  pottery. 
She  pilfers  from  our  simple  grandfathers  their  stout  hinges  and  palpable  nails, 
and  plumes  herself  upon  exhibiting  to  the  world  for  the  first  time  a  '  sincere' 
door!  At  one  time  the  mania  is  Turkish  toweling.  At  another  time  it  is  but- 
terflies on  burlap.  Again  the  fiat  goes  forth  that  you  are  a  heathen  man  and  a 
publican  unless  your  cttrtains  are  all  ring-streaked  and  spotted.  But  whether  it 
is  tiles  or  toweling,  Chinese  junk  or  Japanese  fans,  it  is  a  close  corporation  of 
household  art,  outside  of  which  there  shall  be  only  weeping  and  wailing  and 
gnashing  of  teeth  by  Goths  and  Vandals.  Now  the  outside  barbarians  are  willing 
to  grant  the  art,  but  they  a  little  resent  the  assumption.  One  of  our  most  charming 
writers,  the  author  ofiAspendale,'1  has  said  that  luxuries  are  graceful  only  in 
so  far  as  they  are  necessities.  Similarly  it  may  be  said  that  art  is  artistic  only 
when  it  is  artless.  We  do  not  particularly  object  to  gods  and  little  fishes  scattered 
around  in  Majolica,  but  when  a  marts  whole  air  and  bearing  says,  '  Go  to  ; 
art  is  great,  and  I  am  its  prophet ! '  we  want  to  throw  his  bric-a-brac  at  his 
head.  We  would  rather  he  should  be  modest  and  sham  just  a  little,  than  be  so 
arrogantly  ''sincere.'"' 

The  "New  York  Times'111  shows  how  a  much  better  taste  may  be  displayed 
by  the  selection  of  books  instead  of  useless  bric-a-brac  :  "  After  all  the  talk  about 
hangings,  and  dados,  and  cornices,  cabinets  of  china,  and  even  pictures,  there  is 
nothing  which  does  so  much  to  furnish  a  room  —  we  do  not  say  a  fine  drawing- 
room,  but  a  parlor  used  for  the  daily  gatherings  of  the  household  and  of  friends  — 
as  shelves  of  prettily  bound,  neatly  kept,  and  well-arranged  books.  Nothing  ex- 
presses more  of  real  refinement,  or  tells  more  plainly  of  the  home  enjoyments  of  a 
cultivated  family.  Furniture,  piano-fortes,  pictitres,  may  be  bought  by  order  in 
a  week,  but  books  in  any  noticeable  number,  which  seem  to  belong  in  the  rooms 
where  they  are  found,  must  be  the  rtsult  of  accumulation.  Their  rows  are  the 
tree-avenues  which  mark  the  residence  of  the  aristocracy  of  mental  culture.  True, 
a  collection  of  book*  may  be  bought  in  a  lump,  but  when  they  are  so  obtained  they 
never  seem  to  belong  where  they  are  set  up  for  show,  but  to  be  a  part  of  a  bookseller's 
stock  out  of  place,  which,  indeed,  they  are.  But  books  have  a  value  in  the  fur- 
nishing of  a  room  merely  from  the  masses  of  color  that  they  afford.  They  may 
be  thrust  upon  the  shelves  in  such  a  heedless,  disorderly  way  that  they  produce  a 
distracting  effect,  both  on  the  eye  and  on  the  mind  ;  but  arranged  with  due  regard 
to  harmony  and  contrast  of  color,  and  to^ize  and  proportion,  a  small  collection, 
even  half  a  dozen  shelves,  is  a  very  attractive  object,  and  in  larger  masses  their 
effect  is  very  rich  and  pleasing,  almost  imposing." 


129 

BOURGEOIS  No.  11  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


riME  was  when  Americans  were  insatiable  consumers  of  cheap  books,  and  it  was 
quite  impossible  to  procure  any  substantial,  dignified  works  in  standard  liter- 
ature issued  in  American  dress  that  could  satisfy  a  fastidious  taste  accustomed  to 
the  elegance  an'd  scholarly  appearance  of  English  publications.  Now  the  English 
are  the  makers  of  cheap  books,  and  some  of  the  best  editions  of  standard  English 
authors  are  the  products  of  American  presses  and  binderies,  while  every  ichere  is 
heard  the  complaint  among  American  publishers  that  it  is  impossible  to  publish 
new  books  without  incurring  such  risks  as  make  the  one  successful  book  simply  a 
makeweight  for  a  dozen  unsuccessful  ones.  As  the  case  now  appears,  standard  books 
manufactured  in  America  compete  favorably  with  the  same  works  manufactured  in 
England — their  style  is  often  better  and  the  price  is  lower  ;  miscellaneous  books 
(that  is,  new  ventures  in  literature  of  every  sort),  when  manufactured  in  America, 
whether  of  home  or  foreign  authorship,  compete  unfavorably  with  the  same  class  of 
books  manufactured  in  England — style  has  to  be  sacrificed  for  economy,  and  then 
the  English  price  is  still  below  the  American. 

In  consequence  of  this  state  of  things  American  authors,  when  their  special  studies 
and  qualifications  have  not  led  them  into  the  preparation  of  professional  books,  have 
found  the  magazines  their  main  resource,  and  in  this  channel  is  now  running  the 
current  of  new  American  literature.  Here  the  people  find  their  cheap  books,  the  pub- 
lishers their  field  of  activity,  and  the  authors  their  only  chance  for  a  hearing. 

That  the  life  of  American  literature  is  setting  in  this  direction  finds  evidence  in 
the  keen  rivalry  which  is  rising  between  the  magazines,  and  the  struggle  for  existence 
which  is  the  lot  of  them  all,  in  one  form  or  another.  We  do  not  believe  that  com- 
petition produces  excellence,  or  stimulates  indeed  the  best  efforts  ;  on  the  contrary, 
its  first  effect  is  to  push  forward  show  and  noise  to  the  front  seats  ;  yet  the  turning 
of  money  and  energy  and  managerial  skill  into  this  channel  undoubtedly  makes  a 
better  chance  for  the  author  with  a  really  good  work  to  get  a  hearing  and  a  prompt 
representation.  The  danger,  as  intimated  above,  is  twofold:  that  the  editor  and 
publisher  will  be  eager  for  articles  which  by  their  brilliancy,  or  by  some  taking 
quality,  may  give  a  prominence  to  the  magazine,  and  that  authors,  under  the  somewhat 
feverish  impulse  which  magazine  writing  gives,  shall  write  for  the  current  month  and 
not  for  all  time.  Hut  these  are  dangers  tvnich  lie  near  the  surface.  There  remains 
the  substantial  fact  that  the  monthly  issues  of  the  various  magazines  give  a  chance  to 
the  poet,  the  romancer,  the  philosopher,  the  discoverer,  not  to  be  found  elsewJiere.  A 
true  poem  is  printed  in  a  magazine  to  be  read  by  its  hundred  thousand  readers,  caught 
up  by  the  newspaper  press,  ever  lying  in  wait  for  novelties,  and  read  by  tens  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands.  A  novel  which  might  otherwise  amuse  for  an  evening  a  few 
thousand  readers,  is  the  monthly  freshener  of  life  for  multiplied  thousands,  and  the 
thoughts  confided  to  so  frail  a  vessel  are  carried  safely  to  countless  homes. 

What  the  magazine  is  yet  to  do,  in  what  new  ark  literature  will  find  its  safety — 
these  are  questions  to  speculate  upon.  Enough  now  to  know  that  he  who  writes  for 
the  monthly  magazine  is  discovering  that  he  must  give  his  best,  and  no  longer  treat 
with  contempt  a  vessel  which  bears  the  nation's  best  hopes  ;  that  he  who  edits  and 
publishes  begins  to  find  that  his  function  is  not  mean,  but  that  weak  things  are 
confounding  the  mighty,  and  the  magazine,  that  seems  to  be  forever  dying  to  make 
room  for  a  new  birth,  has  permanence  and  might  because  it  is  the  one  means  now 
left  in  America  of  giving  the  best  we  have  to  the  most  in  number. 


130 
BREVIER  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


T~^\UJ?ING  the  past  two  years  from  eight  thousand  five  hundred  to  nine  thotisand 
J  J  manuscripts  were  annually  submitted  to  "  The  Century  Magazine""  for  publication. 
This  is  an  increase  over  previous  years,  and  does  not  include,  the  hundreds,  perhaps  thou- 
sands, of  propositions  submitted  with  regard  to  articles.  As  there  has  been  an  increase  in 
the  number  of  periodicals  published  in  America  of  late  years,  and  as  the  neivspapers  are 
publishing  more  contributions  than  ever  by  writers  not  on  the  regular  staff,  evidently  there 
has  been  an  increase  in  literary  activity  at  least  in  proportion  to  the  increase  in  population. 

Now  out  of  nine  thousand  manuscripts  a  year  "  The  Century  "  can  only  possibly  print 
four  hundred  or  less.  It  follows  that  editing  a  magazine  is  not  unlike  walking  into  a  garden 
of  Jloivers  and  gathering  a  single  bouquet.  In  other  words,  not  to  accept  an  article,  a  story, 
a  poem,  is  not  necessarily  to  "reject"  it.  There  may  be  weeds  in  the  garden, —  there  must 
be  weeds  in  the  garden, —  but  the  fact  that  a  particular  blossom  is  not  gathered  into  the 
monthly  bouqiiet  does  not  prove  that  the  editor  regarded  the  blossom  as  a  weed,  and  therefore 
passed  it  by.  It  would  be  impossible  to  sweep  all  the  flowers  into  a  single  handful.  The 
"rejected"  or  "declined"  are  naturally  prone  to  gibe  at  sympathetic  or  apologetic  words 
from  editorial  sources  ;  so  we  present  the  above  simile  with  diffidence.  There  is  truth  in  it, 
nevertheless  !  And  it  would  be  much  easier  for  editors  to  mnke  up  a  number  of  bouquets 
from  the  flowers  at  their  disposal  than  to  gather  the  single  one  for  which  alone  they  have  room. 

The  general  impression  of  a  lifelong  reader  of  manuscripts  is  that  the  quality  does  not 
deteriorate —  that,  in  fact,  it  improves.  Such  a  reader,  moreover,  is  greatly  impressed  by  the 
wide  diffusion  of  literary  ability.  There  are  certainly  very  many  more  people  who  can 
write  a  good  story,  a  good  descriptive  paper,  a  good  essay,  a  good  poem,  than  there  were,  say, 
twenty  years  ago.  An  old  manuscript  reader  is  inclined,  in  fact,  to  be  very  optimistic.  Even 
Mr.  Howells^s  recent  extraordinary  praise  of  current  literature  may  not  seem  to  such  a  reader 
as  so  very  far  out  of  the  way.  Btit  after  the  old  manuscript  reader  has  expressed  himself 
thus  optimistically  he  is  entitled  to  his  '•  buts."  He  may  even  permit  himself  to  ask  whether 
the  literary  artist  of  our  day  has  not  caught  somewhat  of  the  hurry,  the  immediateness,  of  the 
time  ;  whether,  indeed,  the  present  age  is  not  too  present  with  us  ;  whether  there  is  the  slow, 
determined,  sure,  artistic  work  which  made  the  successful  careers  of  the  earlier  generation  of 
American  poets,  romancists,  and  essayists.  There  surely  is  siich  work,  but  is  it  as  general 
as  it  should  be?  and,  if  not,  is  this  one  reason  that  there  are  not  more  literary  reputations  in 
the  new  generation  commensurate  with  those  of  the  old? 

At  least  the  old  manuscript  reader  may,  by  reason  of  his  age,  if  nothing  else,  be  pardoned 
should  he  at  times  look  over  his  spectacles  at  the  young  manuscript  writer  and  say  :  "  Yoking 
man,  young  woman,  you  have  talent,  you  have  indtistry ,  you  have  knowledge,  you  have  a 
fine,  large  audience  eagerly  waiting for  you  ;  all  you  need  is  to  respect  still  more  highly  your 
own  unusual  parts .  Ponder  over,  perfect  your  work  ;  be  not  in  too  great  haste  to  bring  it  to 
the  eye  of  the  editor,  to  the  eye  of  the  public.  Regard  each  pccm,  each  story,  as  a  step  in 
your  literary  career ;  let  it  not  leave  your  hand  till  you  have  done  your  very  best  with  it.  If 
you  intend  it  to  be  a  genuine  work  of  art,  make  it  so — if  you  can.  This  may  seem  a  slow 
process,  but  it  may  prove  the  speediest  in  results.  And  remember  that  even  an  editor  is 
mortal,  and,  like  eve>y  other  mortal,  entitled  to  his  proportion  of  mistakes^" 

Conscientious  work  is  not  necessarily  artistic  work,  as  many  a  poor  devil  has  found  ottt  too 
late.  But  it  may  be.  The  heart  comes  first — a  warm  heart  and  a  cool  head,  says  Joseph 
Jefferson — but  heart  without  art  is  of  no  avail.  The  literary  artist  need  not  think  sor- 
didly on  his  or  her  "career"  and  yet  may  cherish  that  decent  regard  for  repute,  that  love 
of  artistic  perfection,  which  will  bring  the  rewards  of  conscience  and  of  honorable  fame. 
At  the  least  the  literary  artist  should  be  ashamed  to  do  less  well  than  in  him  lies.  He  should 
not  niggle  and  polish  for  the  love  of  niggling  and  polishing ;  but  he  should  be  remorseless 
in  self -correction  for  the  love  of  truth,  and  art,  and  beatify. 

THE  CENTURY  MAGAZINE. 


BREVIER  No.  n  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


TIT"  OT  finding  in  the  books  any  definition  of  news,  as  the  newspaper  maker  and 
J_\  newspaper  reader  understand  the  word,  I  asked  a  number  of  journalists  to 
define  the  commodity  in  which  they  deal,  and  out  of  the  correspondence  which  followed 
was  evolved  this  definition  :  "News  is  an  unpublished  event  of  present  interest" 

It  is  an  event,  rather  than  a  fact  or  circumstance,  because  it  contains  the  element  of 
happening.  It  is  unpublished,  in  the  sense  that  it  is  unknown  to  the  readers  of  the 
newspaper  whose  editor  contemplates  its  publication.  It  is  of  present  interest — present, 
because  it  changes  existing  conditions  or  impressions  ;  and  of  interest,  because  it  affects 
either  the  heart  or  the  pocket-book  of  humanity. 

An  event  which  fulfills  these  three  conditions  is  news,  irrespective  of  time  or  locality. 
Both  Livingstone  and  Unyanyembc  died  in  Africa.  The  world  did  not  hear  of  the  death 
of  the  explorer  until  months  after  it  occurred.  Time  did  not  affect  the  character  of  the 
news.  The  world  never  heard  of  the  death  of  the  negro.  Locality  did  not  affect  the 
character  of  the  news.  That  which  did  affect  the  news-character  of  both  events  was 
their  relative  value. 

Editing  a  newspaper  is  the  process  of  weighing  news.  No  newspaper  ever  prints  all 
the  news,  although  many  advertise  to  do  so.  Events  which  are  printed  arc  those  which 
the  editor  believes  to  be  of  the  greatest  interest  to  the  greatest  number  accustomed  to  read 
his  journal ;  and  the  lengths  and  positions  allotted  to  the  items,  as  they  appear  in  the 
journal,  illustrate  the  editor's  notion  of  the  public's  estimate  of  tln-ir  /v/ /•///'////  mines  as 
news.  While  the  editor  edits  the  newspaper,  the  public  edits  the  editor  ;  hence  it  follows 
that  the  public,  so  greatly  given  to  grimaces  over  the  perusal  of  its  follies,  possesses  full 
power  to  season  its  news  to  its  own  taste. 

WJiat  is  the  total  annual  cost  of  maintaining  a  great  newspaper  f  An  answer  to  this 
question  would  be  of  interest  if  the  answer  were  accurate.  It  is  said  that  for  special 
despatches  alone  some  journals  expend  from  five  to  twelve  thousand  dollars  a  month, 
while  the  regular  press  despatches  cost  nearly  as  much  more.  The  cost  of  the  "  local" 
news  far  exceeds  that  of  both  the  special  and  press  despatches.  When  news  is  delivered 
upon  the  news-editor's  desk  it  has  then  to  be  edited,  and  editors'  services  command  vari- 
ously from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  dollars  a  week.  White  paper  bills  cut  a  big 
figure  in  the  outlay  of  the  newspaper  publisher.  The  New  York  "  World"  is  said  to 
expend  above  six  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  a  year  for  this  purpose  alone. 
Compositors'  and  proof-readers'  wages  amount  to  from  two  thousand  to  six  thousand  dol- 
lars a  week,  and  a  new  dress  of  type  must  be  purchased  every  year  or  two,  costing  in 
some  instances  twelve  to  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

Newspapers  have  two  sources  of  income,  advertisements  and  sales  of  copies.  Tlie 
former  is  greater  than  the  latter,  but  not  in  a  proportion  so  overwhelming  as  is  generally 
supposed.  Most  dailies  in  our  largest  cities  realize  an  income  in  about  the  proportion 
of  two-thirds  from  advertising  to  one-third  from  subscriptions  and  sales. 

Never  before  was  newspaper  competition  so  fierce  as  now.  Vast  investments  are  at 
stake,  and  the  best  brains  are  commanded  at  salaries  which,  already  high,  are  steadily 
growing  higher.  Yet  here  is  the  opinion  of  Mr.  George  W.  Childs :  "In  my  twenty- 
five  years'  experience  I  have  never  seen  a  daily  newspaper  injured  by  competition.  If 
a  paper  degenerates,  as  many  have  done  within  my  recollection,  the  cause  is  always  to 
be  found  inside,  not  outside,  its  own  office.  I  have  seen  one  publisher  take  another  pub- 
lisher's business,  never,  though,  because  of  the  superior  ability  of  the  former,  but  always 
because  of  the  marked  incompetence  of  the  latter.  Daily  papers  sometimes  die  of  dry- 
rot,  sometimes  reach  the  sheriff's  hands  through  political  blunders,  internal  quarrels,  or 
jealous  ambitions ;  but  a  paper  that  is  successful,  wide  awake,  and  honest  can  never  be 
injured  by  competition,  however  fierce." 

THE  CENTURY  MAGAZINE. 


132 

MINION  No.  20  ITALIC.    LEADED.  MINION  No.  11  ITALIC.    LEADED. 


/T  has  been  urged  with  pertinacity  that  the  "managing  editor,"  the  executive  officer  of  the 
editorial  leader  should  be  signed  by  the  newspaper,  is  the  really  responsible  party.  Ifotv 
•writer,  and  unresponsive  pity  has  been  called  upon  dare  an  editorial  writer  advance  an  original 
to  rise  in  behalf  of  the  man  whose  talents  find  no  opinion  on  a  subject  of  national  importance 
recognition  in  the  anonymity  of  the  daily  press,  when  the  chief  executive  on  the  other  side  of  the 
For  my  part,  I  know  of  nothing  more  unfortimate  partition  has  received  il  specials"  from  Wash- 
than  would  be  such  a  change  in  custom,  and  I  sin-  ington  and  every  State  capital  giving  the  views 
cerely  hope  the  desire  for  change,  for  the  unusual,  of  men  of  all  shades  of  opinion  on  the  issue  in- 
will  not  lead  to  its  adoption  generally.  The  volved,  many  of  them  speaking  with  an  authority 
potency  of  the  editorial  "we"  has  suffered  enough  which  readers  will  accept  as  conclusive  ?  Why 
in  the  last  dozen  years  without  this  final  blow,  and  venture  to  discuss  the  prospects  of  European 
that  it  has  retained  its  power  at  all  has  been  due  war,  when  Bismarck' 's  opinions,  construed  by 
to  the  willingness  of  great  minds  to  sacrifice  the  Salisbury,  may  be  had  for  money  paid  to  main- 
reputation  for  the  advantages  of  the  freedom  of  tain  a  social  lion  as  correspondent  in  London  ? 
the  anonymous  form.  The  decadence  of  newspaper  The  editor  of  the  metropolitan  journal  is  driven 
influence  would  follow  the  change  almost  inev-  to  discuss  phases  instead  of  the  subject-matter, 
itably,  and  the  fault  would  be  the  writer's,  not  the  or,  perhaps,  devotes  himself  to  praise  of  the  en- 
reader's.  An  appeal  to  all  who  use  their  pens  as  terprise  that  has  obtained  the  important  expres- 
bread-winners  would,  I  think,  bring  a  response  sion  found  in  our  news  columns  of  this  date  ! 
that  the  sense  of  responsibility  is  not  less  when  The  editorial  writer  has,  alas  !  not  even  the 
the  writer  is  unidentified,  while  a  broader  view  is  title  of  ''editor"  in  some  cases,  and  the  con- 
commonly  taken  and  more  courage  shown  in  the  ductor  of  more  than  one  powerful  journal  to-day 
expression  of  opinions  which  may  provoke  dis-  never  puts  pen  to  paper. 

pute,  yet  may,  none  the  less,  be  eternally  true.  That  the  editorial  page  may  soon  disappear 
The  tendency  of  the  individual  is  to  avoid  quar-  altogether  is  a  dreadful  possibility  :  and  if  it  is 
rel,  and  the  avoidance  of  quarrels  is  the  gravest  to  be  committed  to  the  care  of  the  elegant  essayist, 
of  newspaper  blunders.  To  arouse  some  antagon-  writing  over  his  own  signature,  there  willremain 
isms  is  almost  as  necessary  as  to  make  friendships,  no  reason  for  its  existence  in  its  present  form, 
in  a  progressive  journal.  The  pressure  for  space  in  every  great  daily  is 

Journalists  should  need  no  warning,  however,  severe,  and  it  now  requires  a  stern  front  to  hold 
against  the  use  of  the  first  person  singular,  in  the  three  or  four  columns  sacred  for  editorial 
view  of  the  decline  of  the  editorial  which  most  of  utterances.  Give  the  news  editor  his  opportunity 
them  are  aware  of,  though  not  so  many  will  ad-  and  he  will  abolish  the  essayist  without  a  qualm 
mit  it.  If  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  had  not  spoken,  of  conscience. 

one  might  appeal  to  the  average  citizen  for  con-  Yet  one,  cannot  see  the  approaching  doom  of  a 
firmation  of 'the  declaration  that  the  editorial  has,  department  in  journalism  so  powerful  as  this 
in  fact,  declined.  By  this  let  it  not  be  supposed  without  an  effort  to  avert  it.  A  force  so  poten- 
that  the  leader  is  not  so  able  (to  use  a  favorite  Hal  as  the  daily  newspaper  should  be  something 
newspaper  word)  as  in  the  earlier  days,  for  a  com-  more  than  the  mirror  of  events  which  the  execu- 
parison  of  the  editorial  page  of  to-day  with  the  tive  forces  of  journalism  are  making  it.  Let 
page  of  twenty  years  ago  shows  no  falling  off ,  but  them  pursue  their  glorious  career  undisturbed 
rather  a  gain  in  method  and  matter.  It  is  simply  and  hire  tJie  Prince  of  Wales  for  special  society 
that  the  editorial  is  not  read  with  the  attention  correspondence,  or  the  Pope  for  theological  dis- 
once  given  it,  that  it  is  now  merely  one  depart-  cussion,  if  they  can;  but  let  the  editorial  "we" 
ment  of  the  newspaper,  receiving  the  consideration  remain.  The  leader  writer  must,  however,  give 
of  the  subscriber  if  his  norse-car  journey  happens  in  this  ivork  a  cause  for  his  existence,  and  that 
to  be  long  enough.  Of  course  a  good  deal  of  this  can  be  found  only  by  some  change  in  method, 
neglect  has  been  due  to  the  increased  size  of  the  There  have  been  occasions  when  an  editorial 
more  prosperous  papers  and  the  vast  extension  of  expression  of  opinion  might  have  been  of  tre- 
the  field  they  cover.  The  news  columns  are  so  mendous  value,  backed  by  that  mysterious  ano- 
much  more  interesting  than  they  used  to  be  !  But  nymity  of  which  I  have  spoken.  There  should 
there  have  been  other  causes  at  work,  and  the  be,  it  seems  to  me,  a  thorough  study  of  current 
great  increase  of  personalism  —  the  word  is  used  public  agitations  by  editorial  writers  who  now 
in  a  broad  sense — is  to  blame  for  the  loss  of  re-  avoid  them,  or,  worse  yet,  slur  them  over  with 
sped  for  the  purely  editorial  utterance.  The  vague  generalities. 

W.  T.  HUNT. 


133 
NONPAREIL  No.  20  ITALIC.     LEADED.          NONPAREIL  No.  22  ITALIC.     LEADED. 


TN  Eckermann's  "  Conversations  with   Goethe"  any  common  trunlc.     The  only  sign  that  looks  in  the 

-L    that  poet  is  represented  as  having  said,  in  Jan-  slightest  degree  in  this  direction  is  the  offering  of  two 

uary,  1827,  that  the  time  for  separate  national  litera-  courses  in  Greek  and  Latin  jointly, —  only   one  of 

tures  had  gone  by.      "  National  literature,"  he  said,  which,  however,  is  given  thin  year, —  of  three  in  Ger- 
"  is  now  a  rather  unmeaning  phrase ;  the  epoch  of    manic  Philology  collectively,  and  seven  in  Romance 

World-Literature  is  at  hand,  and  each  one  must  do  Philology  collectively. 

what  he  can  to  hasten  its  approach."     Then  he  points  No  study  seems  to  me  to  hold  less  place  in  ouruni- 

out  that  it  will  not  be  saf<?  to  select  any  one  literature  versifies,  as  a  rule,  than  that  of  literature  viewed  in 

as  affording  a  pattern  or  model;  or  that,  if  it  is,  this  any  respect  as  an  art;  all  tends  to  the  treatment  of 

model  must  necessarily  be  the  Greek.     All  the  rest,  it  as  a  department  of  philology  on  the  one  side  or  of 

he  thought  t  must  be  looked  at  historically,  we  appro-  history  on  the  other  ;  and  even  wliere  it  is  studied  and 

priaiingfrom  each  the  best  that  can  be  employed.  training  is  really  given  in  it,  it  is  almost  always  a 

If  this  vvorld-literature  be  really  the  ultimate  aim,  training  that  begins  and  ends  with  English  tradition 
it  is  something  to  know  that  we  are  at  least  getting  and  method.  It  may  call  itself  "Rhetoric  and  Eng~ 
so  far  as  to  interchange  freely  the  national  models.  Hsh  Composition,"  but  the  one  of  these  subdivisions 
The  ctirrent  London  literature  is  French  in  its  forms  is  as  essentially  English  as  the  other.  It  not  only 
and  often  in  its  frivolity ;  while  the  French  critics  recognizes  the  English  language  as  the  vehicle  to  be 
have  lately  discovered  Jane  Austen,  and  are  try-  used  —  which  is  inevitable  — but  it  does  not  go  behind 
ing  to  find  in  that  staid  and  exemplary  lady  the  the  English  for  its  methods,  standards,  or  illustra- 
founder  of  the  realistic  school  and  the  precursor  of  tions.  There  is  at  Harvard  a  professorship  of  Art 
Zola.  During  our  Centennial  Exposition  I  asked  a  — but  this  means  plastic  art  alone;  and  there  is  a 
Swedish  commissioner  if  Fredrika  Brewer's  works  pr of  essor ship  of  Belles- Lettren,  but  only  as  an  adjunct 
were  still  read  in  Sweden.  He  said  that  they  were  to  the  French  and  Spanish  languages  and  litera- 
not;  and  when  I  asked  what  had  taken  their  place,  tures  ;  and  moreover  this  professorship  is  vacant, 
he  answered,  "Bret  Hartt  and  Mark  Twain."  That  there  is  such  a  thing  as  training  in  thought 
Among  contemporary  novelists  Mr.  Howells  places  and  literary  expression  quite  apart  from  all  na- 
the  Russian  first,  then  the  Spanish,  ranking  the  tional  limitations — this  may  be  recognized  here  and 
English,  and  even  the  French,  far  lower.  He  is  here  in  the  practice  of  our  colleges,  but  very  rarely 
also  said,  in  a  recent  interview,  to  have  attributed  in  their  framework  and  avowed  method, 
his  own  style  largely  to  the  influence  of  Heine.  But  And,  strange  to  say,  this  deficiency,  if  it  be  one, 
Heine  himself,  in  the  preface  to  his  "  Deutschland,"  has  only  been  increased  by  the  increased  differentia- 
names  as  his  own  especial  models  A  ristophanes,  Cer-  tion  and  specialization  of  our  higher  institutions, 
vantes,  and  Moliere  —  a  Greek,  a  Spaniard,  and  a  Whatever  the  evils  of  the  old  classical  curriculum,  it 
Frenchman.  Goethe  himself  thinks  we  cannot  com-  had  at  least  this  merit,  that  it  included  definite  t'n- 
prehend  Calderon  without  Hafiz,  and  Fitzgerald  struction  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  literature 
takes  us  all  back,  certainly  with  great  willingness  on  as  literature.  So  long  as  young  men  read  Quin- 
the  reader's  part,  to  Omar  Khayyam.  Surely,  the  tilian  and  Aristotle,  although  they  may  have  missed 
era  of  a  world-literature  must  be  approaching.  much  that  was  more  important,  they  retained  the 

Yet  in  looking  over  the  schedules  of  our  universi-  conception  of  a  literary  discipline  that  went  behind  all 
ties,  one  finds  as  little  reference  to  a  coming  world-  nationalities  ;  that  was  neither  ancient  nor  modern, 
literature  as  if  no  one  had  hinted  at  the  dream,  but  universal.  I  heartily  believe,  for  one,  in  the  in- 
There  is  an  immense  increase  of  interest  in  the  study  troduction  of  the  modern  elective  system  ;  what  I  re- 
of  languages,  no  doubt ;  and  all  this  prepares  for  an  gret  is  that,  in  this  general  breaking  up  and  rear- 
interchange  of  national  literatures,  not  for  merging  ranging,  the  preparation  for  a  world-literature  has 
them  in  one.  The  interchange  is  a  good  preliminary  been  so  far  left  out.  If  Goethe's  view  is  correct — and 
stage,  no  doubt,  but  the  preparation  for  a  world-lit-  who  stands  for  the  modern  world  if  Goethe  does  not  ? 
erature  must  lie  in  the  study  of  those  methods  of  —then  no  one  is  fitted  to  give  the  higher  literary  train- 
thought,  those  canons  of  literary  art,  which  lie  at  the  ing  in  our  colleges  who  has  not  had  some  training  in 
foundation  of  all  literatures,  fhe  thought  and  its  world-literature  for  himself. 

expression  —  these  are  the  two  factors  which  must  And  observe  that  Goethe  himself  is  compelled  to 

solve  the  problem ;  and  it  matters  not  how  much  we  recognize    the  fact    that   in   this  world-literature, 

translate  or  overset — as  the   Germans  felicitously  whether  ice  ivill  or  no,  wemust  recognize  the  excep- 

say  —  so  long  as  we  go  no  deeper  and  do  not  grasp  tional  position  of  the  Greek  product.    The  supremacy 

at  wJtat  all  literatures  have  in  common.     Thus  in  of  the  Greek  in  scidpture  is  not  more  unequivocal 

the  immense  range  of  elective  studies  at  Harvard  than  in  literature.    To  treat  this  supremacy  as  some- 

University    there   are  fifteen    distinct  courses   in  thing  accidental  —  like  the  long  theologic  sicay  of  the 

Greek,  fourteen  in  Latin,  and  twenty  each  in  Eng-  Hebrew  and  Chaldee—is  to  look  away  from  a  world- 

lish,  French,  and  German  :  but  not  a  single  course  literature.    It  is  as  if  an  ambitious  sculptor  were  to 

among  them  which  pertains  to  a  world-liter  at^lre,  decide,  to  improve  his  studio  by  throwing  his  Venus 

or  even  recognizes  that  these  various  branches  have  of  Milo  upon  the  ash-heap. 


134 
ELZEVIR  BODY  14.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


THE  ART  OF  BOOKKEEPING. 

How  hard  when  those  who  do  not  wish 
To  lend  (that  's  give)  their  books, 

Are  snared  by  anglers  (folks  who  fish) 
With  literary  hooks, 

Who  call  and  take  some  favorite  tome, 

But  never  read  it  through  ! 
Thus  they  commence  a  set  at  home 

By  making  one  at  you. 

I,  of  my  Spenser  quite  bereft, 
Last  winter  sore  was  shaken  ; 

Of  Lamb  I've  but  a  quarter  left 
Nor  could  I  save  my  Bacon. 


135 

PICA  No.  20.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


BOOKS. 

BOOKS  are  a  part  of  man's  prerogative, 
In  formal  ink  they  thoughts  and  voices  hold, 
That  we  to  them  our  solitude  may  give, 
And  make  time  present  travelled  that  of  old. 
Our  life,   Fame  pierceth  at  the  end, 
And  books  if  farther  backward  do  extend. 

SIR  THOMAS  OVERBURY. 

GIVE  me 

Leave  to  enjoy  myself.     That  place  that  does 
Contain  my  books,  the  best  companions,  is 
To  me  a  glorious  court,  where  hourly  I 
Converse  with  the  old  sages  and  philosophers ; 
And  sometimes,   for  variety,  I   confer 
With  kings  and  emperors  and  weigh  their  counsels  ; 
Calling  their  victories,  if  unjustly  got, 
Unto  a  strict  account,  and  in  my  fancy 
Deface  their  ill-placed  statues.     Can  I  then 
Part  with  such  constant  pleasures,  to  embrace 
Uncertain  vanities  ?     No ;  be  it  your  care 
To  augment  a  heap  of  wealth :   it  shall  be  mine 
To  increase  in  knowledge. 

FLETCHER. 


136 
SMALL  PICA  No.  n.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


THE   SCHOLAE. 

HIM  was  lever*  have  at  his  bed's  head 
Twenty  bookes,  clothed  in  black  or  red, 
Of  Aristotle  and  his  philosophy, 
Than  robes  rich,  or  fiddle  or  psaltry. 
But  all  be  that  he  was  a  philosopher, 
Yet  hadde  he  but  little  gold  in  coffer, 
But  all  that  he  might  of  his  friende's  bent 
On  bookes  and  learning  he  it  spent, 
And  busily  'gan  for  the  soule's  pray 
Of  them  that  gave  him  to  scholar y. 
Of  study  took  he  moste  care  and  heed, 
Not  a  word  spoke  he  more  than  was  need; 
And  that  was  said  in  form  and  reverence, 
And  short  and  quick,  and  full  of  high  sentence, 
Sounding  in  moral  virtue  was  his  speech, 
And  gladly  would  he  learn  and  gladly  teach. 

*  Rather. 


137 

ELZEVIR  BODY  10.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


MY  days  among  the  Dead  are  pass'd  : 

Around  me  I  behold, 
Where'er  these  casual  eyes  are  cast, 

The  mighty  minds  of  old ; 
My  never-failing  friends  are  they, 
With  whom  I  converse  day  by  day. 

With  them  I  take  delight  in  weal, 

And  seek  relief  in  woe ; 
And  while  I  understand  and  feel 

How  much  to  them  I  owe, 
My  cheeks  have  often  been  bedew'd 
With  tears  of  thoughtful  gratitude. 

My  thoughts  are  with  the  Dead :   with  them 

I  live  in  long-past  years  ; 
Their  virtues  love,  their  faults  condemn, 

Partake  their  hopes  and  fears, 
And  from  their  lessons  seek  and  find 
Instruction  with  an  humble  mind. 

My  hopes  are  with  the  Dead  :  anon 

My  place 'with  them  will  be, 
And  1  with  them  shall  travel  on 

Through  all  Futurity ; 
Yet  leaving  here  a  name,  I  trust, 
That  will  not  perish  in  the  dust. 

ROBERT  SOUTHEY. 


138 

LONG  PRIMER  No.  20.     DOUBLE  LEADED. 


MRS.    HANNAH    MORE'S   CONUNDRUM. 

I  'M  strange  contradictions:  I  'm  new  and  I  'm  old, 

I  'm  often  in  tatters,  and  oft  decked  with  gold; 

Though  I  never  could  read,  yet  lettered  I  'm  found, 

Though  blind  I  enlighten,  though  loose  I  am  bound; 

I  'm  always  in  black  and  I  'm  always  in  white, 

I  am  grave  and  I  'm  gay,  I  am  heavy  and  light. 

In  form,  too,  I  differ — I  'm  thick  and  I  'm  thin, 

I  Ve  no  flesh  and  no  bone,  yet  I  'm  covered  with  skin; 

I  Ve  more  points  than  the  compass,  more  stops  than  the  flute, 

I  sing  without  voice,  without  speaking  confute ; 

I  'm  English,  I  'm  German,  I  'm  French,  and  I  'm  Dutch; 

Some  love  me  too  fondly,  some  slight  me  too  much. 

I  often  die  soon,  though  I  sometimes  live  ages, 

And  no  monarch  alive  has  so  many  pages. 


139 

SMALL  PICA  GREEK.     LEADED.* 


Asysiai  6  9s(U<3TOxXyj<;,  NsoxXsooc   oioc,  OOTGO 

_/  \_  elvai,  xal  Trpd^soov  [isYaXcov  OTTO  tplXori{ila<;  spaoTYjc,  wars  vsoc  wv 
STL,  TTJC  sv  Mapaft&vt  {idXYjc  rcpoc  TOO?  pappdcpotx;  YSVOJASVYJC,  xal  TY^C  MiX- 
TidSoo  aTpaTYjYiac  SLapoyjfrsl'ayjC,  aovvooc  6pda$att  Ta  icoXXa  Trpoc  saoTio,  xal 
Tac  voxTac  aYpoTuvslv,  xal  TOOC  TUOTOOC  ffapattsfoftat  TOO?  OOVY]I>=IC,  xal 
XSYSIV  Trpoc  TOOC  spwTwvTag  >tai  t)-ao|j.dCovTag  TYJV  irepi  rov  PLOV  {X£Ta,3oXyjV, 
cog  xa^-SD^stv  aoTOV  oox  scj>Y]  TO  TOO  MtXttdSoo  TpoTiaiov.  Oi  [xsv  yap  aXXoi 
if)OVTO  TOO  TroXsjJLOo  T7]v  sv  Mapat>oovL  Twv  (3apf&p<ftv  i^TTav  slvai,  0=- 
Ss  apX'^jv  {isiCdvaiv  aYoovwv,  I'f  '  oog  iaoTOv  oTrsp  TY^C  oX-qc  rEXXd- 

ael,  v.cti  TYJV  TroXtv  ^OXSL,  7ropp(o\>=v  YJOYJ  Trpo^oo/tcov  TO  jisXXov. 
Kai  TTpwTOV  [isv  T'/jv  AaopicoTixfjV  Trpoaooov  a^o  TOJV  apY 

IXdvTcov  'Ad^vaUov  Siav^juo^at,  |j.ovo?  sl~*iv  i 
TOV  Sfj[iov,  d)g  XpTj,  TTJV  S'.avojj/?]v  idaavTag,  sx  TWV  */pr^dr(ov  TOOTWV  xata- 
oxsodoaad-at  tptujpei^  eirl  TOV  irpo?  AlYtvijta?  irdXsjtov.     vIIx,|iaC£ 
sv  T^  eEXXa§».  (j^dXiaTa,  >tal  xatst'/ov  01  AiY'.vfjTai  irXiijdsi  vswv  TYJV 
Xaaaav.    rH'.  xal  paov  OcfitaTOVtXy^  aovs^siasv,  oo  Aapstov,  ooSs 

Yap  fpav  OOTOL,  xai  §sog  oo  Tcdv)  pspa'.ov  we  a^pt^dfisvot  Traps 
,  aXXd  TTJ  Trpog  AiY'.vr^Ta?  opYYj  xal  'f.XovsLXia  TWV  TuoXiTwv 

soxaipwc  STTI  TYJV  TrapaaxsuYjv.  'ExaTov  Yap  OLTTO  TO>V 
sxsivwv  sTTOiYj^-Yjaav  TpiYJpsi?,  a'{  xal  rcp&c  Ssp^Yjv  svao»idXrpav.  'Ex  Ss  TOO- 
TOO  xaTa  (itxpov  {>7rdYwv  xal  xaTap'.pdCwv  TYJV  TcdXiv  TTpoc  TYJV  ^-dXaaoav, 
(i)g  Ta  TrsCd  [isv  ooSs  rote  ojxopoic  a^'.ojidXooc  ovTaq,  TY^  S'  aTio  TOOV  v=d>v 
aXxvj  xai  TOOC  [3appdpooc  dfxovaaftai,  xal  TfjC  cEXXdooc  apXsiv  Sovajj-svooc, 
dvTl  {xovL{ia)v  oTuXLTwv,  wg  <pY]3L  IlXdTwv,  vaofldTag  xal  daXaTTiotx;  s^oir^s' 
xal  §LapoXYjV  xa^-'  arjTOo  TiapsaXsv,  d>?  apa  9s[iK3roxXr]<;  TO  Sopo  xal  TY(V 
aaiutSa  TWV  TroXiTwv  TrapsXdjJLSvog,  sic  oTTYjpsaiov  xal  XCOTTY^V  oovdoTEtXs  TOV 
TOOV  5A^Y]va'liov  SYJJXOV.  vE7rpa4s  §s  TaoTa  "MiXridooo  xpar^ia?  avT'.XsYovTOC. 
El  {xsv  §Y]  TYJV  axptpsLav  xal  TO  xa^-apov  TOO  TroXiTsofiaToq  sjiXa^sv,  Y)  ;iYr 
Tipdiac,  SCJTW  (piXoao'fWTSpoo  STUWXOTTSIV.  c'6v.  §'  YJ  TOTS  aooTYjpia  TOIC 
iv  sx  TYJ?  ^aXAoor^  &irJ)p£s,  xal  TYJV  'A^vaicav  TudXiv  Xo8-siaav  saTYp 
oav  at  Tptyjpei?  sxsivat,  Ta  T'  aXXa,  xal  Esp^Yjs  aoTog  sjiapTopYps.  TY^C 
Yap  TcsCix^c  §ovd[xsa)(;  a^-paoaTOo  Sia[j.svooaYjC,  s'fOYS  (isTa  TY^V  TWV  vswv 
Y^TTav,  cog  oox  wv  a4'.6jxaXoc.  Kal  MapSoV.ov  s^TuoSwv  stvat 
TYjg  SLW^SCO?  [laXXov,  TJ  SooX(oa6[xsvov  aoTOo?,  ooc  i{j.ol  Soxsi,  xaTsXiTrsv. 
AsysTai  §',  5OXo{X7ui(ov  TWV  sff  S^YJC  aYOfisvcov,  xal  TrapsX^ovTog  sic  TO 
Stov  TOO  ©sfuaToxXsooc;,  ajj.sAY|aavTa<;  TO>V  aYwviaTwv  TOOC  rcapovTac, 
TYJV  YjjJ.spav  sxsivov  ^-saa^aL,  xal  TOIC  isvoic  sTT.Ss'.xvosiv,  ajxa 
xal  xpoTOovTag-  WCJTS  xal  aoTOV  Yj^svTa  Tipoc  TOOC  rf  iXooc  6{xoXoY^aai  TOV 
xapTuov  aTusXsiv  TWV  oTisp  T^C  cEXXd§oc  aim]) 


We  have  this  Tischendorf  face  on  english  and  bourgeois  bodies. 

Also,  Person  Greek  on  brevier  and  nonpareil,  and  Enschede  Greek  of  old-style  form  on  long-primer  body. 


140 

LONG  PRIMER  GERMAN  No.  90.     SOLID. 


(Settler. 

3d)  Bin  aflfyier  erft  furje 
Unb  fomme  $oll  (Ergebenfyeit, 
(Stnen  9ttann  $u  fprecfyen  unb  ju  fennen, 
afle  mir  mit  (Ef)rfurd)t  nemten. 


Sure  £oflid)feit  erfreitt  mid)  fefyr. 
3fy?  fefyt  einen  9ftann,  txne  anbre  me^r. 
ifyr  euc^  (onft  f^on  umget^an? 


<Bd)  liter. 

3^  Bttt'  euc^,  ne^mt  end)  meiner  an  ! 
34  fomme  wit  atlem  guten  ?DZnt^r 
£eiblid)em  ©elb  nnb  frifc^em  33Iut. 
9Jietne  Gutter  wottte  mid^  faum  entfernen. 
gern  n?a^  9le(%U  ijterauj^en  ternen 


X)a  (etb  tfyr  eben  re^t  am  Ort. 

Scpler. 

Stufri^tig,  moc^te  fc^on  n?ieber  fort. 
3n  biefen  5D?auern,  btefen  £ftUen, 
mir  feinesmeg^  gefallen  ; 
ift  etn  gar  befdjra'nfter  3lanm, 

fie^t  nicfyt3  ©ritne^,  !etnen  33aum, 
Unb  in  ben  ©a'len,  auf  ben  23anten, 

mir  ^oren  @en  unb  3)en!en. 


fommt  nnr  anf  @en?ofynfyeit  an. 

nimmt  ein  «ftinb  ber  SO^ntter  33ruft 
gtei(^  im  Stnfang  ttnliig  an, 
balb  erna^rt  e3  ftc^  mit  ^uft. 

anrb'3  en<^  an  ber  SSei^^eit  23riiften 
Wit  jebem  Xage  me^r  getiiften. 


2tn  i^rem  QaU  mitt  id)  mit  ^reuben  ^angen; 
!Dod)  (agt  mir  nitr,  iuie  lann  ic^ 


(Srllart  eu^,  ef)  i^r  meiter  a,et)t, 
ma^It  i^r  fiir  eine  gacnltat? 


3d)  miinf^te  red)t  gele^rt  ju  merben, 
Unb  m6'd)te  gern,  n>ad  auf  ber  (Erben 
Unb  in  bem  ^)immel  ift  erfaffen  : 
Die  SBiffenf^aft  unb  bie  5^atur. 


Xa  feib  ii)r  auf  ber  rec^ten  Spur; 

X)od)  miif  t  i^r  eud)  nid)t  ^erftreuen  laffen. 


GOETHE'S  FAUST. 


141 

LONG  PRIMER  GERMAN  No.  90.     LEADED. 


©c^uter. 

2$  bin  babei  mit  (SeeP  unb  £eib  ! 
Dod)  freiltcfy  roitrbe  mir  befyagen 
(Sin  menig  ^reifyeit  unb  3ett»ertreib 
5ln  fcfyonen  ©ommerfeiertagen. 


®ebrau$t  bcr  3«t!  fie  gefyt  fo  fcfynell  Don  tyinnen; 

Docfy  Drbnung  lefyrt  euc^  3e^  gcwinnen. 

9Wctn  tfyeurer  greunb,  id)  rat^'  euc^  brunt, 

3uerft  Collegium  Sogicum. 

Da  nrirb  ber  ®eift  euc^  mo|l  breffirt, 

3n  fpantfc^e  ©tiefeln  cingefc^nurt, 

£)ajj  er  bebai^tiger  fo  fortan 

£>infd)Ietcfye  bic  ©ebanfenba^n, 

Unb  nic^t  ettua  bic  ^reuj  unb  Quer 

3rrttcfytelire  Mn  unb  ^er. 

lefyret  man  euc^  manc^en  Jag, 

n?a^  i^r  fonft  auf  (Sinen  Sc^Iag 
©etrteben,  n?ie  (Effen  unb  Xrinfen,  fret, 
Sin^  !  $met  !  brei  !  baju  notfyig  fet. 
3mar  tft^  mit  bcr  ©ebanfcnfabrif 
3Bic  mit  cincm  2Gcbcrmctftcrftii(!, 
23o  Sin  Jritt  taufcnb  ga'bcn  rcgt, 
Die  @d^ifflcin  ^criibcr  fyiniibcr  fc^icjcn, 
Die  g^bcn  ungefe^en  flief  en, 
Sin  @cfylag  taufenb  3Serbinbungen  ftfylagt. 
Der  5)^ilofo^,  ber  tritt  fyerein 
Unb  bemeift  eud^,  e^  rniif  t1  fo  fein  : 
Da3  erft'  war'  fo,  ba^  jroeite  fo, 
Unb  brunt  bag  britr  unb  oierte  fo  ; 
Unb  tuenn  bag  erft'  unb  jmeit1  nic^t  war', 
Dag  britt1  unb  tnert1  war1  nimmerme^r. 
Dag  preifen  bie  @(^uler  atler  Drten, 
<Sinb  aber  feine  SBeber  gemorben. 
2Ber  wiU  tt»ag  Sebenbig'g  erlennen  unb  befdjreiben, 
(Suc^t  erft  ben  ©eift  ^eraugjutreiben  ; 
Dann  ^at  er  bie  £fyeile  in  fetner  £anb, 
ge^U  leiber  nur  bag  geiftige  33anb» 
Encheiresin  naturae  nennt'g  bie  Sfyemie, 
i^rer  felbft,  unb  mei§  nid^t  wie, 

GOETHE'S  FAUST. 


142 

FRENCH  OLD  STYLE  ON  BODY  n.     LEADED. 


TU  viens  d'incendier  la  Bibliotheque  ? 
Oui. 

J'ai  mis  le  feu  la. 

Mais  c'est  un  crime  inou'i, 

Crime  commis  par  toi  centre  toi-meme,  infame  ! 

Mais  tu  viens  de  tuer  le  rayon  de  ton  ame  ! 

C'est  ton  propre  flambeau  que  tu  viens  de  souffler ! 

Ce  que  ta  rage  impie  et  folle  ose  bruler, 

C'est  ton  bien,  ton  tresor,  ta  dot,  ton  heritage! 

Le  livre,  hostile  au  maitre,  est  a  ton  avantage. 

Le  livre  a  toujours  pris  fait  et  cause  pour  toi. 

Une  bibllotheqae  est  an  acte  de  foi 

Des  generations  tene'breuses  encore 

Qui  rendent  dans  la  twit  tdmoignage  a  V aware. 

Quoi !  dans  ce  venerable  amas  des  verites, 

Dans  ces  chefs-d'oeuvre  pleins  de  foudre  et  de  clartes, 

Dans  ce  tombeau  des  temps  devenue  repertoire, 

Dans  les  siecles,  dans  rhomme.  antique,  dans  1'histoire. 

Dans  le  passe,  legon  qu'epelle  1'avenir, 
Dans  ce  qui  commenga  pour  ne  jamais  finir, 
Dans  les  poetes !  quoi,  dans  ce  gouffre  des  bibles, 
Dans  le  devin  monceau  des  Eschyles  terribles, 
Des  Homeres,  des  Jobs,  debout  sur  1'horizon, 
Dans  Moliere,  Voltaire  et  Kant,  dans  la  raison, 
Tu  jettes,  miserable,  une  torche  enflammee  ! 
De  tout  1'esprit  humain  tu  fais  de  la  fumee  ! 
As-tu  done  oublie  que  ton  liberateur, 
C'est  le  livre  ?  le  livre  est  la  sur  la  hauteur ; 

[Concluded  on  next  page.] 


143 

MODERN  FRENCH  LIGHT-FACE  ON  BODY  10.     LEADED. 


II  luit ;  parce  qu'il  brille  et  qu'il  les  illumine 

II  detruit  1'echafaud,  la  guerre,  la  famine ; 

II  parle ;  plus  d'esclave  et  plus  de  paria. 

Ouvre  un  livre.     Platon,  Milton,  Beccaria. 

Lis  ces  prophetes,  Dante,  ou  Shakspeare,  ou  Corneille; 

L'ame  immense  qu'ils  ont  en  eux,  en  toi  s'eveille ; 

Ebloui,  tu  te  sens  le  meme  homme  qu'eux  tous ; 

Tu  deviens  en  lisant  grave,  pensif  et  doux ; 

Tu  sens  dans  ton  esprit  tous  ces  grands  hommes  croitre  ; 

Us  t'enseignent  ainsi  que  1'aube  eclaire  un  cloitre ; 

A  mesure  qu'il  plonge  en  ton  coeur  plus  avant, 

Leur  chaud  rayon  t'apaise  et  te  fait  plus  vivant ; 

Ton  ame  interrogee  est  prete  a  leur  repondre ; 

Tu  te  reconnais  bon,  puis  meilleur ;  tu  sens  fondre 

Comme  la  neige  au  feu,  ton  orgueil,  tes  fureurs, 

Le  mal,  les  prejuges,  les  rois,  les  empereurs ! 

Car  la  science  en  I' homme  arrive  la  premiere, 

Puis  vient  la  liber  te.     Toute  cette  lumiere, 

G'est  a  toi,  comprends  done,  et  c'est  toi  qui  1'eteins  ! 

Les  buts  reves  par  toi  sont  par  le  livre  atteints ! 

Le  livre  en  ta  pensee  entre,  il  defait  en  elle 

Les  liens  que  1'erreur  a  la  verite  mele, 

Gar  toute  conscience  est  un  noeud  gordien. 

//  est  ton  medecin,  ton  guide,  ton  gardien. 

Ta  haine,  il  la  guerit;  ta  demence,  il  te  I'dte. 

Voila  ce  que  tu  perds,  helas,  et  par  ta  faute ! 

Le  livre  est  ta  richesse  a  toi!  c'est  Le  savoir, 

Le  droit,  la  verite,  la  vertu,  le  devoir, 

Le  progres,  la  raison  dissipant  tout  delire. 

Et  tu  detruis  cela,  toi ! 

Je  ne  sais  pas  lire. 

VICTOR  HUGO,  "L'Annee  Terrible." 


144 
EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY  FRENCH-FACE  ON  BODY  12.     SOLID. 


El  pire  inconvenient  de  cette  reclame  qui  de  la  page 
d'annonces  est  remontee  en  tete  des  journaux, 
c'est  qu'elle  a  tue  la  critique.  Qui  done  aujourd'hui 
jette  le  filet  dans  le  tas  des  livres  inconnus?  Qui 
done  tente  le  tri?  Certes,  les  bonnes  volontes  et  le 
gout  ne  font  point  defaut.  Mais  le  journal,  qui  aban- 
donne  une  si  large  place  an  theatre,  n'a  pas  reserve 
un  asile  pour  le  livre.  Les  moeurs  modernes  lui  ont 
appris  le  vrai  taux  de  son  concours.  II  tient  ses 
prix.  II  ne  se  croit  pas  oblige  de  sacrifier  ses  interets 
a  1'amour  platonique  des  lettres. 

Prive  des  conseils  de  la  critique,  le  grand  public  a 
choisi,  hors  du  journal,  les  guides  de  son  gout.  II 
s'est  remis  aux  mains  des  snobs. 

La  conversation  sur  les  livres  fait  partie  de  la  vie 
elegante,  comme  la  tasse  de  the  de  cinq  heures.  Et 
il  va  sans  dire  que  le  choix  des  lectures  des  snobs  est 
determine  par  des  motifs  qui  ne  sont  point  la  curiosite 
des  idees  neuves  et  du  style.  Ces  gens-la  lisent  cer- 
tains auteurs,  comme  ils  s'habillent  chez  certains  cou- 
turiers, parce  que  cela  est  la  mode,  parce  que  les  elus 
dont  ils  re^oivent  le  mot  se  fonrnissent  a  ces  adresses. 

Tel  quel,  le  snob  est  un  excellent  commis  voyageur 
en  renommees.  II  frequente  les  plages,  les  saisons 
d'eau,  tous  les  rendez-vous  des  oisifs.  Lorsqu'une 
fois  il  a  retenu  un  nom,  il  le  repete  sans  se  lasser. 

G'est  done  a  lui  que  les  habiles  devront  faire  la 
cour.  Ils  flatteront  ses  petites  manies  de  correction 
et  de  costume.  Ils  traiteront  a  son  intention  Funique 
sujet  ou  le  snob  prenne  du  plaisir :  1'aventure  d'une 
mondaine  elegante  qui  a  un  am  ant  et  qui  en  change. 

A  ces  conditions  le  snob  se  fera  le  colporteur  de 
vos  livres,  et  vous  aurez  la  chance  qu'il  arrive  ainsi 
aux  mains  des  simples  honnetes  gens,  de  ceux  qui  ne 
lisent  pas  par  mode,  mais  pour  leur  plaisir,  et  qui, 
eux,  vous  adopteront,  une  fois  pour  toutes,  si  vous 
les  aidez  a  formuler  1'inconnu  qu'ils  portent  dans 
leur  coeur. 

HUGHES  LE  Roux,  in  "Le  Figaro." 


145 

CONDENSED  FRENCH-FACE  ON  BODY  12.     LEADED. 


A  UX  yeux  du  public  profane,  il  semble  qu'on  n'ait  a  s'occuper 
_ljL  que  du  format,  du  papier,  du  caractere,  du  nombre  de  pages, 
pour  que  le  premier  prote  venu  puisse  mener  a  bien  une  impres- 
sion de  volume. —  II  en  est  tout  autrement,  si  Ton  sent  en  soi 
1' amour  .du  livre,  aussi  bien  que  le  respect  des  traditions. 

II  ne  faut  pas  tout  d'abord  blesser  les  regies  typographiques 
ni  s'y  renfermer  aveuglement.  Le  papier  une  fois  choisi,  dans 
le  format  in-18  ou  in -8°,  il  s'agit  d'arreter  la  hauteur  de  page  et 
la  justification,  c'est-a-dire.  de  mettre  le  texte  en  harmonie  avec 
les  marges ;  il  convient  d'etablir  le  titre  courant,  de  juger  des 
divers  interlignages,  de  recommencer  dix,  quinze,  vingt  fois  le 
type  specimen  d'une  page,  observant,  critiquant,  clignant  de 
1'oeil,  jusqu'a  ce  que  la  ponderation  parfaite  ait  ete  atteinte ; 
puis,  cela  fait,  viennent  les  questions  des  blancs,  les  fins  de 
chapitres,  «l'habillage»  des  vignettes  et  enfin  le  titre. 

Le  titre !  cela  semble  tout  simple,  mais  rien  n'est  aussi  malaise 
que  de  le  combiner  dans  sa  perfection,  selon  les  regies  de  la 
typographic  et  du  bon  gout ;  on  en  compose  dix  et  ce  n'est  pas 
cela  ;  on  recommence ;  de  la  capitale  on  passe  au  has  de  casse, 
du  bas  de  casse  a  la  lettre  fantaisiste,  on  cherche  dans  le  moderne, 
dans  Yelzevir,  dans  la  renaissance :  on  combine,  on  melange  les 
races  de  caracteres ;  on  coupe,  on  divise,  on  subdivise,  on  res- 
serre  les  textes  ou  bien  on  les  aere,  et  ce  n'est  qu'apres  un  labeur 
parfois  incroyable  qu'on  obtient  le  titre  reve,  serieux,  qui  fait 
plaisir  a  voir  et  engage  le  lecteur  a  pousser  plus  loin  dans  les 
colonnes  serrees  du  volume. 

Le  livre  est  a  peine  compose,  lu  en  premiere,  en  seconds,  relu 
en  bon  a  tirer  et  revise  en  tierce,  qu'il  faut  surveiller  le  tirage,  la 
mise  en  train  et  le  bon  decoupage  des  vignettes,  porter  son  atten- 
tion a  un  encrage  suivi,  a  un  foulage  modere ;  puis  le  brocheur 
enleve,  le  glaceur  satine,  les  feuilles  sechent  quelques  jours,  et, 
enfm,  sous  le  couteau  a  papier  des  habiles  brocheuses,  le  volume 
prend  corps,  est  vetu  de  sa  couverture ;  le  livre  vient  au  jour,  il 
parait. 


OCTAVE  UZANNE. 


Z250 

PS? 

IS*?/ 


